Viva la Vida
by StarStrellaStar
Summary: Bella is beautiful, life-loving and reckless. Edward is handsome, realistic and responsible. They don't really know each other, but their wedding is only months away. With the support of a "loving" family, this arranged marriage will surely work out, right? On Hiatus
1. Chapter 1

**_A/N:_ I've done it...once again. Uploading a new story before the others are done, but I just can't help it. So many ideas are flying around in my head and I just have this incredible need to share them. Plus, this story has been voted for the most on my poll :D **

**Disclaimer****: Well, if I was Stephenie Meyer, I would not be writing this right now, would I?**

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><p>I tossed and turned in my bed. Tomorrow was the day that I'd been dreading for years.<p>

My twenty-fourth birthday.

Most people would probably think I was being overdramatic and that I wasn't even old enough to worry about getting older, but the truth was, I wasn't scared of aging. I feared what was awaiting me tomorrow.

To explain that a bit better, I'll need to start at the beginning.

In my family, marriage had never been a thing that was associated with love. My great-great-grandfather was the one who started this whole mess by marrying a barroness. After her father passed away, he inherited his title and they had a kid together. That's when it all started. You see, they decided who was a fitting husband for their daughter and so she ended up marrying a young duke. When they had a son, he had to marry an earl's daughter. One day, my grandparents had this splendid idea. They decided to found a company that supported engineers and inventors of all kinds, and for that, they moved to the United States. Oh, did I forget to mention that my family was orginally from Europe? Whoops.

In the beginning, they were quite successful with their business, but after some time, they began having trouble with their company, and so they had yet another brilliant idea: have their daughter, who also happens to be my mother, marry the son of the founder of a pharmaceutical company. I now call said son 'Daddy'. This did not only fuse together their families, but also their companies. Back then, it was a pharmaceutical business that was constantly searching for new cures and such, and allowed scientists from all around the globe to present their ideas to them.

And that brings us to the problem at hand. I've been bespoken for ever since the day I was born. Hell, ever since the day I was _conceived._

The reason for this all was actually quite simple. My dad wanted to take the company - yes, it still exists - to another level and he'd found the perfect partner to do so. The thing was, neither of them actually had financial issues or anything of the sort, but my dad was interested in earning more money and getting a proper husband for his beloved daughter, and nobody in their right mind would say no to the nobility, the power connected with it, and of course, the money.

Apart from the money we made with the company, we still had the family heir, so if there was any danger for the company, there would still be more than enough money in our bank accounts to save it.

This kind of assurance convinced Mr. Carlisle Cullen and his wife, Esme, to agree to this marriage. That, and the fact that their family also had a tendency to lean toward arranged marriages. So I'd been engaged to their youngest son ever since I was born. Anyway, enough with the family history, let's get to the part that has me laying awake in bed at 3AM.

My whole life, I'd never met my husband-to-be. Well, okay, that wasn't entirely true. Our parents had decided to let us grow up together, so we wouldn't be too freaked out about all of this arranged marriage stuff because in our time, arranged just wasn't how things were done. The thing was, we lived in beautiful, sunny Phoenix, and the Cullens lived at home in Chicago, so we didn't grow up together, but we did meet a few times when we were little. Edward had been to a few of my birthday parties, and I'd honored him with my presence a couple of times. Only, neither of us liked that very much. Back then, we were at the age where girls had princess parties and boys dresses up as pirates, so we'd convinced our parents that we didn't want to go to eachother's birthdays anymore. They tried to make us call eachother at least once a week once I turned thirteen and discovered the practical use of the telephone, but that didn't go over too well either. So our parents decided to let us be kids for a while longer, and then my family would move to Chicago once I turned eighteen.

Well, we did move, but I didn't go with them because I was off to college. Princeton had been my destination, my obligation, my goal, and I didn't leave the place until I majored in the English language and was ready to move the world with my words. On my twenty-first birthday, my parents had sent me the engagement ring that had been specifically chosen by Edward, my...fiancé. Back then, I downright refused to acknowledge the stunning diamonds that rimmed the pearl in the middle.

After college, we were supposed to get married, but plans changed once again. Edward had accompanied his father, who'd been planning to fly all across Africa, to do some research on the HIV virus.

Edward had just gotten out of medical school, so he wanted to use his newly acquired skills. Everyone expected me to agree to this, of course, because the family had suddenly decided that it was up to me whether or not Edward was allowed to go. As soon as Edward got wind of this news, he'd called me to practically beg me to let him go. I didn't tell him that he didn't have to beg - I mean, it's not like I had some sort of ownership of him - but I did tell him that he could go because I was definitely not prepared for that marriage. As a matter of fact, I would never be ready for the marriage, but now there was no going back.

Edward had been back at home for about half a year - a bit earlier than expected - which is why I wasn't in the country at the time. I'd decided to use the duration of his absence to do some travelling on my own and I'd actually just returned from India yesterday. So not only was tomorrow my birthday, but it was also the day I was set to meet the wedding planner, who happened to be my future sister-in-law, and I was supposed to meet Edward before Saturday because our families planned to have dinner together at a charity event soon.

With all of this flying around my head, while cursing my family for being powerful and wealthy, it was no surprise that I couldn't sleep.

"Isabella, wake up!" I heard a familiar voice command sharply. I heard that someone pull my curtains aside to let the sunlight in.

I pulled the covers over my heaed and turned, completely disregarding the fact that I should get up. I'd been lying awake in bed for hours and now I wanted nothing more than to sleep. Plus, I also had jetlag since I'd only come back from travelling yesterday.

"Isabella Marie Swan! Get up!" Now that she was shouting, her accent was seeping through strongly. My grandmother had come from Italy, all the way to the US, just to be present for my wedding. Normally, that would be cute. But my Granny was not at all cute. I'd actually been extremely relieved when she and grandpa decided to move back to their home country a few years back.

"Mom, let me try," I heard the much gentler voice of my mother say.

A huff came from my grandmother before I heard her stomping out of the room.

"Bella, I know you're not sleeping anymore, so please get up - you have a very busy day today."

I groaned and stirred a little, but made no more effort to move.

"Bella, if you don't get up now, I'll allow your grandmother to do whatever she pleases with you," my mother threatened.

"Fine. I'm up, I'm up," I grumbled as I threw the covers off of myself and sat up. When I finally managed to open my eyes, I frowned at the room around me. I was currently staying in my parents' castle/mansion, and as much as I love plush king-sized beds, I didn't like the rest of the room. The whole house was decorated like a castle and this room was certainly no exception. It looked like one of those princess bedrooms people usually see on television.

My mom stepped out of the closet and laid a few articles of clothing on the chair in front of the dresser before she waltzed into the bathrom. By the sounds of it, she was drawing me a bath. I smiled fondly at that. She'd never been the real maternal type because she was always a little bit too childish, and definitely too spoiled for that, but she always tried her hardest and sometimes, she got things right. Like now, for instance. A bath was the perfect thing to help relax my tense muscles.

The water was still running when my mom stepped back into the room. She came to my side and sat softly on the edge of the bed, then pulled me into a tight embrace.

"Happy birthday, my sweet darling girl. May all your dreams come true on this special day," she gushed, then sighed. "I really hope you and Edward get along well."

"Thanks, Mom," I replied, my voice still thick with sleep.

She smiled kindly at me before getting up and moving toward the door. "We woke you up extra early today so you have two hours to get ready and eat breakfast, then Alice will be here to spend the rest of the day with you. She's a very sweet girl."

"Alice is Edward's sister, right?" I asked carefully. I hadn't been too sure about her name.

My mom turned around to look at me in shock. "Bella, you have to know these things," she said with wide-eyes, speaking in a somewhat scolding tone. "Alice is going to be your sister-in-law in a few weeks."

"Sorry, sorry. It won't happen again," I grumbled and moved to the bathroom to get away from my mother's disapproving eyes.

The tub was full now, so I quickly turned off the water before I stripped my pajamas and settled into the hot water. I sighed contently as soon as I sat in the tub, and in that moment, I couldn't imagine anything better than that. I drifted off, enjoying the relaxing feel of the water, and let my hands wander over my body every now and then. Hopefully Edward would be hot or at least average, otherwise I'd start thinking about cheating on my husband. Maybe we would have a hot Latino butler who'd be willing to do _everything_ for me...

I hadn't realized that I was touching myself until the banging on the door no longer matched the one in my fantasies.

"Bella?" Mom called frantically.

"Yeah?" I answered, slightly frustrated that she'd interrupted me.

"You have to hurry up. Alice is already on her way here. She called a moment ago to let us know that she would be here a little earlier," my mother answered.

"I'll be right out," I called in a voice that clearly showed just how unmotivated I was. I stepped out of the tub and into the shower to rinse myself off before I quickly jumped out and wrapped myself in a warm, cottony soft towel.

I already knew that today wasn't going to be a very good day. Not only was I tired beyond belief, and extremely unenthusiastic, but now I was also sexually frustrated because my mother had interrupted me and Pablo, my imaginary butler.

I bent down and started to blow dry my hair. I always dried my hair with my head upside down because I found it easier to brush and dry at the same time when my hair was dangling down. When I finished getting out all of the knots, I ran my fingers through my hair and swung my head back up, shaking it quickly and ruffling through my hair once.

Now that I had enough volume in my hair, and it didn't look like I'd just combed it, I was satisfied enough to get dressed.

Lucky for me, no one was in my room when I returned. I looked at the outfit my mother had chosen for me to wear; a cute, short white dress with a black bow on the bustline. It was nice, but not really my style. It looked a little too...nice. I sighed and put it on anyway. I wouldn't want to upset the parents on a day like today.

Edward had better appreciate this because he definitely isn't seeing this dress on me ever again.

I slipped into the white wedge heels that went with the dress and almost cried at how simple and cute the outfit was. I had nothing against cute, but this just made me look so innocent and young; it definitely wasn't the look I was aiming for. I really needed to speak to my mother again about letting me dress myself.

I fluffed my hair once more and went to grab the matching purse when I froze.

There it was, lying on my dresser just waiting for me to put it on.

I sat down in front of the dresser and gazed at it before reaching out and grabbing my mascara instead. For some reason, I started applying it to my eyelashes.

"Isabella, are you ready?" I heard my grandmother's voice from down the corridor.

"I'll be out in a minute," I yelled back and stared at the thing again. I sighed and reached for it, then slipped the ring on the ring finger of my left hand where it belonged. I'd only worn it once before - on the day I'd received it - and I'd taken it off after only a second.

I felt it's weight and knew it had less to do with the rock on it and more with the fact that reality was starting to caught up with me. I had no chance of running away anymore, and I had no more excuses left. I had to face my destiny and live with it. I gulped. My destiny was to be wed to Edward and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

I sighed once more and then moved out of my room.

"It's about time, Isabella," my grandmother complained. She'd been standing in front of my door.

If I wasn't so tired right now, I would've snapped something back at her. My grandmother and I weren't known to get along. She was a very traditional, strict person, and I was...well, I was just about the exact opposite of what she wanted in a granddaughter. She partly blamed my mother for being a bad parent.

I swept passed her and skipped down the entirely-too-large staircase that led to the monstrously large entrance hall. The kitchen was behind the stairs and I quickly rushed into it before Granny Swan made it downstairs.

"Happy birthday, Bella," Laurent, our family cook, spoke in that oh-too-cheerful voice of his. Laurent had been cooking for us ever since I was ten years old. Now he was standing in this oversized kitchen with a marzipan cake in his hands.

"Aw," I cooed. "You don't know how much I've missed that cake. Thank you," I pulled him into a hug, careful not to harm the cake.

"It's nice to know you missed the cake," he said, sounding a bit offended.

I moved to the fridge to get some cherry-banana juice. Laurent handed me a glass before I could even start looking for one.

"Oh, you know I missed you too; there isn't a single person in the world that can cook like you," I said and smiled brightly at him. Laurent had always been one of the few people in the house who could actually brighten my mood instantly. When I was little, I used to make fun of his French accent, which honestly, I still did every now and then.

"Sure there is - I've taught you well," he replied nonchalantly.

"Yes, but you didn't teach me everything," I said. "When are you going grocery shopping?" I sat on the island in the middle of the kitchen with a bowl of cereal and started munching happily.

"You know, there is a special breakfast here that I made just for you. Your mother spent a whole day deciding what you should have for your birthday breakfast," Laurent told me and motioned toward the dining room.

Behind the stove was a big hatch, which was now closed. It was usually only ever open when my mom threw dinner parties and wanted to show off her amazing French cook. I always rolled my eyes at that.

"Oh, please, you know I don't care much for those fancy breakfasts. Besides, my grandmother will probably be in there, so I'll just have to make do with cereal."

"Hmm," he hummed in a musing tone. "I thought this might happen, so I was kind and made some waffles for you, but if you'd rather eat ce—"

"Shit! Why didn't you say so earlier? You know I'd die for your waffles, Laurent. Give 'em to me!" I exclaimed and nearly threw down the cereal bowl so I could reach my greedy hands out.

Laurent chuckled and went around the counter, grabbing a plate with his delicious waffles on it out of the oven. He then went to the fridge and put some whipped cream on top with a single strawberry.

"Enjoy, ma chérie," he handed me the plate and laughed at my sparkling happy eyes.

"Laurent, I swear I love you," I muttered threw my mouth which was now stuffed with waffles. "Will you marry me?"

He laughed again. "I don't think your parents would be too impressed by that."

"Fuck that. We can run away and change our names. They'll never find us."

Laurent rolled his eyes.

I swallowed quickly. "You didn't answer my question, by the way."

"About the grocery shopping?"

I nodded.

"Actually, I was planning to do that today. Would you like to come along?"

"Hell yeah!" I shouted and jumped off the counter, only to halt my motions and frown. "But I can't, I have an exclusive meeting with my wedding planner slash future sister-in-law."

"Oh, Alice is coming here? Why did I not know that?"

"You're just the cook, nobody tells you anything," I answered as I skipped to the sink to wash my plate.

"If you want to eat my waffles ever again, it'd be wise of you to keep those things to yourself," he threatened.

"Yeah, yeah," I mumbled with a small giggle. Just then, the doorbell rang. "Oh fuck," I cursed to myself and quickly dried my hands. "How do I look?" I asked Laurent, fluffing my hair yet again and straightening out my dress.

"As gorgeous as always, of course. Although you do look more like the nice version of yourself," Laurent commented while his eyes roamed over my outfit, inspecting it.

"Thanks for reminding me," I replied dryly. "My mother chose this outfit. Can't you tell?"

"She is aware of the fact that you are twenty-four now, right?"

"I'm not sure about that," I shrugged. "But today, I'm also going to meet future count Edward—"

"What? You're finally meeting him? Why didn't you tell me this? Oh darling, no wonder you're so out of it today," Laurent suddenly squeaked, sounding like a teenage girl.

"I am not out of it," I protested.

"Oh really? So you let your mother dress you everyday? That's a perfectly normal occurrance for you, huh?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Shut up," I murmured and threw the dish towel at him.

"Okay, tell you what. I'll hold off on the grocery shopping and do it tomorrow so you can come along - _if,_" he stressed as he saw my hopeful expression, "you tell me all about him. Deal?"

"Deal," I agreed just as I heard the piercing voice of my grandmother scream my name throughout the house. I sighed. "Why can't I have a cute old, wrinkly grandma who likes to tell stories instead of the devil's mistress?"

"We both know you're not the type of girl that deserves a cute granny - you're almost as devilish as she is," Laurent chuckled.

"Fuck you, Laurent," I sang and danced out of the kitchen.

"Love you too," I heard him call after me.

"Isabella, what were you doing in the kitchen?" My grandmother thundered as she suddenly stood in front of me.

I opened my mouth to answer her question in the normal Bella manner when I noticed a tiny figure in the entrance hall talking to my mother.

That must be Alice. I'd never imagined her to be _that_ tiny.

Laurent decided to answer granny for me. "Isabella," he said in a mocking tone as he stuck his head out of the kitchen, "wanted to know what I planned to serve at the wedding."

My grandmother still didn't look very pleased, but she nodded anyway and then led me toward my mother and Alice. "If you wanted to know what was on the menu, you could have simply asked Mary-Alice - she knows everything concerning your wedding. There's no need for you to associate with the houseworkers, Isabella. It was cute when you were little, but you're all grown up now," she scolded on our way.

"Oh, you've seen the menu? Don't you just love it?" the tiny girl in front of me asked as my grandmother finished her little rant.

"Um, yeah. I love it," I muttered halfheartedly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Al—"

My grandmother made a sound of disapproval, cutting her off.

"—Mary-Alice Whitlock," the girl corrected with a smile that didn't look nearly as carefree as it had a second ago. "You're wedding planner and sister-in-law-to-be. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too. I'm Bella," I replied.

"_Isabella,_" my grandmother said with emphasis, "wants to take part in the wedding preparations. She also needs to choose a wedding gown, as well as set a wedding date with Edward."

"We don't have a wedding date, but we're already in the middle of preparations?" I asked in disbelief, looking at each of them as if they'd lost their minds.

"We're not in the middle of preparations, we only started last week. Nothing has been finalized yet—I merely created a few options for you to choose from if you want to, and we already have a vague time frame," Alice told me, her smile bright again.

"The preparations need at least a month, so you can choose any date from then on," my mother told me gently.

"I don't want it to me any more than two months from now," my grandmother threw in.

I restrained myself from strangling her and instead turned to Alice. "So what do we do today?"

She seemed to be rather ecstatic that I'd asked her that specific question. Now that I really got a good look at her, I realized how much she resembled a tiny pixie with her short black hair neatly combed down and a purple flower in her hair, matching the purple dress she was wearing. Her mixed colored eyes seemed to glow and her tiny body dance around gracefully.

She was like a cute little toy.

"Well, I thought I would introduce you to the people that you and I will be dealing with from now on. The florist expects us today at 11:30 and it's already—" she looked at her watch, "Holy crap, it's already 10:45!" She grabbed my arm and pulled me along as she rushed toward the front door.

"Bye Mom," I managed to call before the door closed and Alice practically threw me inside the limousine.

"Hurry up or we're going to be late for our meeting with the florist," Alice called to the driver before she put the window up. "Sorry about that," she said to me as I positioned myself more comfortably from the awkward heap I'd landed in when Alice threw me.

"Don't worry about it," I told her while I fluffed my hair.

"Okay, I'll just break down today's agenda for you. We're going to meet the florist because he already has a few ideas that he wants to show you. After that, we'll go to my workshop so I can take your measurements, and later we'll meet Edward for lunch and go see the real estate agent so you can look at some houses and apartments. Then you should come to my office with me—I have some ideas for wedding themes and you can decide on one. Afterwards, we'll have dinner with my brother, his wife, and my husband," she'd been looking at a personal organizer the whole time which probably contained today's schedule.

I sighed. It was going to be a long day and I wasn't sure if I could behave for that many hours. I looked out the window and watched the scenery of the city life. From the corner of my eye, I saw Alice watching me.

"Aren't you at all curious?" she asked me with surprise in her voice.

"About what?"

"Your fiancé."

I cringed at the term. I hated thinking of myself being engaged. I glanced down at my left hand before I turned to face Alice again.

"Is there anything to be curious about?"

"Well, I don't know," she answered. "I was just wondering why you aren't asking any questions. A normal person would."

"I don't exactly consider myself normal. Did Edward ask about me?"

"No, he didn't, but he didn't have to because your parents always go on and on about the great things you've done and what a brilliant student you are and how beautiful you are," Alice giggled.

"Well then, tell me something about Edward."

Alice's face turned thoughtful. "Easier said then done," she mumbled after a while.

"Isn't he your brother? You must be able to tell me something. What's his favorite food?"

"I don't know. I don't think he has a favorite food. Oh wait, I know he likes mushroom ravioli," Alice smiled proudly.

"Do I even want to know what kind of person he is if his own sister doesn't even know his favorite food?"

"He's really nice, I swear. It's just...well, Edward is a bit more serious than the rest of us."

"Does that mean he's no fun at all?"

"No. He's just not as open as other people, especially not around strangers. He's been like that ever since we finished high school."

"So he's no fun," I concluded in a grumble before crossing my legs in a swift motion.

Alice looked like she was trying to fix the first impression she'd just created. "I'm sure the two of you will get along perfectly. You're both very intelligent and judging by the way you're dressed, you might actually have similar tastes."

"I doubt that. My mom wanted me to wear this. I think she was afraid that I might put on some ripped jeans, which is totally ridiculous; I haven't worn them in years."

"So you don't usually dress like this?"

"No way in hell."

"Thank God. I was scared you were going to be like Ed—" the look that I gave her silenced her. Then she sighed. "I give up. You'll have to meet him yourself to know if he's bearable or not. I mean, I love him—he's my brother—but he can be difficult."

"Is he at least hot?"

"Ew. Isabella, he's my brother."

"Ugh, don't call me Isabella," I told her. "The only person who does that is my grandmother. It's just Bella."

"Oops, sorry."

"No worries. You might've already realized that my grandma doesn't like nicknames too much."

Alice coughed to diguise her laugh.

"Mrs. Whitlock, we're here," the driver spoke through an intercom.

"Alright, let's go," she announced and opened the door to get out of the car.

I stepped our right behind her and followed her into the white house in front of us. Once we were inside, we were surrounded by flowers and all different kinds of decorations.

"Alice! It's so nice to see you again," a male voice exclaimed happily.

A man appeared from behind one of the rose bushes and just by looking at him, I could tell he was gay. That made me smile. I often liked gays more than girls.

"James! How are you?" Alice called back in a similar voice.

"I'm great, just great. Oh, you brought something sweet?" he asked as he caught sight of me.

"Yes, that is our bride. Bella, this is James. James, meet Bella," Alice introduced us.

"Oh darling, such a waste. A hot piece of candy like you shouldn't go to someone like Edward," he said, shaking my hand.

"James, don't say things like that. You'll scare her," Alice scolded.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetie," he said with an apologetic expression on his face.

I simply shrugged.

"Not real talkative, huh? Well, most people are speechless around me and Alice, we just blabber on 24/7. Tell me when it gets to be too much for you; I tend to get carried away," he gushed without taking a breath.

"Will do," I told him with a smile.

"Okay James," Alice said with a suddenly very business-like voice. "What have you got for us?"

"As you can see, I have quite a few things, but I worked on some stuff just for you." He led us to the next room which was bigger than the one we were just in. Everywhere there were tables with different floral decorations.

"Okay, Bella, I already thought of some possibilities for themes, and I asked James to work on some samples," Alice explained to me.

"I thought Edward and I were supposed to decide together," I yawned, still not the least bit impressed with the whole situation.

"Well yes, but the bride always has veto power. As for the groom...well, he should just go along with everything the bride says."

"Okay, here is the first table set that Alice requested," James gestured to a table with a cloth on it that was red in the middle. On it was a flower arrangement made from white and red roses that stretched across the red stripe in the middle of the table.

"What kind of theme is that?" I asked, eyeing it all with distaste. "Cliché?" It was beautiful, of course, but it was just so stereotypical. If I had to get married this early in life, then there was no way red roses would be involved.

"No, the word that popped into my mind was romance," Alice told me, sounding a little bit put off.

I quirked an eyebrow at her. "No offense, but do you really think 'romance' is the best theme in mine and Edward's case?" I asked her sarcastically.

James giggled at that. "I told you it was a bad idea," he mumbled to Alice. She grimaced, crossing something out on her planner before James lead us to the next table with green cloth and little yellow flowers covering it. "This is a much simpler theme. I call it 'Spring Fever'. The wohle place would be in light, yet subtle colors like these. You know, green, yellow, perhaps a little bit of soft pink and even a splash of orange or red."

"Anything else?" I asked in a disinterested tone.

"None that are complete yet," James answered.

"So you don't like Spring Fever?" Alice asked me.

"Not really - it's just not _me._ But then again, this whole wedding thing isn't really my thing either."

"Of course it is!" Alice reprimanded quickly. "Weddings are everybody's thing. We just have to find the right theme for you."

"If that's what you think."

"It is. We could make the wedding a bit more exotic, sicne you just came back from India. Stronger colors, but not too much. Maybe we could even import some flowers."

"No need to go overboard, Alice. I don't want you to go through that much trouble," I interfered as she pulled out her iPhone and started to type furiously.

"Trouble? It's not trouble at all. It's my job," Alice told me with a bright smile.

"Alright, but there's still no need to start anything right now if nothing is finalized, right?"

Alice looked at me, then at the phone, then at James who nodded in agreement. "You're right," she sighed before her enthusiasm returned. "But you can tell us what your favorite flowers are - James will get them. And I will think of some more possibilities. How does that sound?"

"Fine, I guess."

"Okay, this is going to be a lot of hard work, so we'll need somewhere to sit," Alice said while giving James a meaningful look.

"Follow me," he sang and walked through a glass door that led to a garden. He brought us to the other side of the garden and into a greenhouse.

I momentarily forgot my sleepiness once we stepped into the sunlight. To me, the sun was a universal remedy. No matter how bad my mood was, it always got better when the sun was shining. And to add to my sudden contentment, it looked really beautiful inside the greenhouse with all the different kinds of flowers and plants all over. In the middle there was a table with chairs around it that looked perfect for a tea party.

Alice and I sat down while James looked at me expectantly.

"Name a flower," he demanded sweetly.

"Um...orchid?"

"What color?" Alice asked as she busily started writing down every word I said.

"I kind of like the pink ones," I answered with a shrug. Generally, I wasn't one for pink, but in the case of flowers - or at least orchids - I loved it.

"Coming right up," James announced and skipped down the aisle.

"So Bella, don't you want to talk about yourself?"

"What?" I asked, dumbfounded. I'd been starting to doze off since the sun was shining down on me.

"You like the sun," she noted.

"Of course," I smiled at her. "Who doesn't?"

"I'm pretty sure there are some people who don't," Alice answered seriously.

"Well those people are nuts."

"I agree with you on that. Maybe we should go to the beach sometime or...oooh! We could make it a beach wedding!" Alice suddenly started jumping up and down in her chair.

I looked at her in amusement. "I won't complain about that one," I told her and laughed at the joyous expression that took over her face.

She quickly scribbled something down in her personal organizer just as James came back in with some pink orchids and what I thought were pink lilies.

"I thought you might like these as well," he explained.

"I love lilies," I cooed, making James smile. "But I like white lilies the most." That James and Alice both gasp in shock. "What?"

"White lilies are the flower of death, darling - we can't use them," James informed me.

"Ugh, fine," I said, thinking of a compromise. "I want yellow lilies then."

"They shall appear momentarily." And with that, James was gone again.

The next to hours of my life were more entertaining than I would've thought. I came to see that Alice was a very nice person and I could actually see myself being friends with her. After a few minutes of listing flowers, I got tired of sitting and decided to go through James' collection and occasionally point out some of the flowers I liked. Alice took notes the whole time and made jokes on the side. What was even more amusing than that was the bantering that occurred between Alice and James when they didn't agree on something. At one point, Alice threatened to draw on his crisp white suit with her pen if he didn't agree with her. Needless to say, he complied immediately in a desperate attempt to save his precious clothes.

After those two hours, I was even more exhausted than I had been before and I hadn't even thought that was possible.

"Okay Bella, here's my card. Call me when you need anything at all. Flowers, drugs, a shoulder to cry on - doesn't matter what, I'll help you out," James offered as he handed me a card.

"Oh shit, I knew you were a drug dealer. I'll totally get back to you," I said with a laugh as James winked playfully.

"Okay, kiddos. No more playing around now, we have to go meet the groom for lunch and we're actually already kind of late," Alice said and dragged me away as I waved James, who was watching us with an amused expression, goodbye.

Once we were back inside the limousine, I laid down on the seat I had all to myself.

"I don't want to meet the groom," I whined and closed my eyes to try to at least relax a little.

"Oh Bella, it'll be just fine, really. You two will probably hit it off right away," Alice assured me.

"Where are we going for lunch?" I asked, yawning as I completely ignored what she'd said.

"I was thinking Chinese, and I know this great place, so—"

"So we're eating Chinese?"

"Um, yes," Alice answered hesitantly. "But if you don't like Chinese, we can—"

"Shut up, Alice. I love Chinese, mostly because I get to eat with chopsticks, which I love."

Alice chuckled. "So do I. One time, I refused to use cutlery for an entire month just because I'd recently learned how to eat with chopsticks."

"God, Alice, I think I love you," I mumbled, causing her to chuckle once again.

Even if I wouldn't get along with my future husband, at least I hit it off well enough with his sister.

About a half an hour later, Alice had to wake me up.

"Bella, I can't believe you fell asleep just before you meet your future husband," Alice gasped out between giggles and snorts.

"Hmm?"

"Wake up. We're already late."

"But I'm tired," I mumbled, but opened my eyes anyway.

"What did you do last night?" she asked. "Did you even get any sleep at all?"

"No, not really," I answered truthfully as I sat up.

"Here," Alice handed me a hairbrush and started to dig through her purse for something. Meanwhile I quickly brushed through my hair, smoothening it again before ruffling it slightly. Alice found whatever she'd been looking for and crawled closer to me. "Okay, just let me do my job," she murmured and started to apply lipgloss to my lips.

"Alice, what are you doing?" I managed to ask with a partly closed mouth.

"I'm making you look like someone who did not just fall asleep before meeting the person they're going to spend the rest of their life with. And someone who's a little more awake," Alice stated simply and started smudging something underneath my eyes. Then she applied some mascara to my lashes before looking at me once and giving me a satisfied nod. She knocked on the window behind her and this time, the driver opened the door for us.

Alice stepped out first and led the way into a palace-like restaurant.

The hostess who was greeting us had her hair in a fancy hairdo that involved a pair of chopsticks. I'd always wanted to wear my hair like that, so I made a mental note to try it out sometime soon.

"Names?" the hostess asked politely.

"We're meeting Mr. Cullen," Alice told her.

The hostess made a sound of recognition and led us through the restaurant. It was split into two parts, separated by a little stream that had a cute little bridge built over it. We crossed that bridge and the hostess gestured toward a table in the far corner.

This was it. This was the moment I was going to meet Edward, and now for the first time today, I was nervous.

We approached the table and the moment I saw the man sitting there, my nervousness was immediately replaced by something else. Shock. My future husband was...welll, he was a freaking monster. A handsome and kind of sexy monster, but still a monster. How the fuck did the little kid I remember turn into _that?_ There must've been a lot of steroids involved in reaching that.

"Emmett, what are you doing here?" Alice interrupted my thoughts as she waved her arm toward a chair, telling me to sit down. I took the seat right in front of Ed—whoa, wait! Emmett? I thought his name was Edward. So, wait, then is this not Edward?

I let out a sigh of relief, earning a curious glance from Alice and the giant monster called Emmett, who was sitting in front of me.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, but Edward is still busy at the hospital so he asked me to meet you guys for lunch," he explained with a shrug.

"Ugh, he is such an idiot. I should've known he would find a way to put this off for a bit longer. If it keeps going like this, the two of them are never going to meet each other before they get to the alter," Alice complained with dramatic hand gestures as Emmett kept stealing glances at me and seemed to be surpressing a grin.

"What?" I asked self-consciously.

"Nothing," he answered innocently and then seemed to remember something. "Right, sorry. I'm Emmett Cullen, your future brother-in-law. Nice to meet you, Isabella," he held his giant hand out toward me and grinned like a little kid, showing his dimples.

"I would've said you were cute if you hadn't just ruined the moment by calling me Isabella. I fucking hate that name," I grumbled.

"It's just Bella," Alice told him for me.

"So Edward's girl has a dirty mouth, hates proper names, and thinks I'm cute? This is going to be fun."

"You're only cute because of your dimples," I clarified.

"Yeah, yeah, we're all very cute. Now can we please get back to the problem at hand?" Alice interrupted impatiently.

"What problem?" both Emmett and I asked at the same time. We looked at each other and he grinned at me again while I quirked a brow at him.

"We have to see the real estate agent, but without Edward, this is hardly going to be manageable," Alice said exasperatedly.

"Yes, but we both know what Edward likes, so it's not a very big deal, Alice," Emmett commented with a shrug.

Alice stopped her dramatic antics and looked thoughtful for a moment. "True. And we weren't going to decide anything today anyway. We just need to make sure we take a lot of pictures, Emmett. I'll make a catalogue for Edward, then."

"Okay, this is all really great and stuff, but I'm starving and if I don't get food soon, I'll eat one of you - probably Emmett - and then I'll go to jail for cannibalism and then there will be no wedding to plan anymore, so let's eat," I said so fast that I had to take a huge breath the second I finished talking.

Emmett looked at me for a second before he broke out into a booming roar of laughter, causing people to look at him funny while Alice seemed to take my threat literally as she quickly shoved a menu in my direction while waving at a passing waiter and ordering our drinks.

"So Bella," Emmett started and took a large breath. "Tell us something about yourself."

"I already tried that, Emmett, and I didn't get anything out of her," Alice informed him.

"That's because there's really not much to tell," I objected.

"Um...didn't you just come back from India?" Emmett asked in confusion.

"Yeah, I did," I answered just as the waiter appeared with our drinks.

"Are you ready to order?" he asked politely, looking at each of us. We quickly ordered before Emmett turned his attention back to me.

"So, you like travelling?" Emmett asked, although it was more of a statement than a question.

"That would be an understatement, my friend. I _love_ to travel. I love to see everything the world has to offer, I love learning more about different cultures and meeting new people. If I had a normal like like everybody else, I would be on my way to South Africa right now," I said dreamily and swayed slightly to the sound of the background music.

"Hmm...South Africa," Alice hummed and pulled out her personal planner to scribble something in it.

"What are you writing now?"

"South Africa could be beautiful for a honeymoon," Alice replied thoughtfully.

"I don't know why you and Edward have these workaholic tendencies," Emmett muttered and shook his head.

"I'm not a workaholic, I just work a lot," Alice protested.

I laughed at that. "I'm not an alcoholic, I just drink a lot," I started singing.

"Huh?" Alice looked at me in confusion.

"Oh, come on, don't you know the song?"

Alice shook her head.

"_Alcoholic_ by Pitbull and DJ Laz," Emmett noted.

"Thank you," I sighed while looking at Alice as if she'd lost her mind.

"You listen to the same music as Emmett?" she asked in disbelief.

"Apparently," I answered with a shrug.

"That's totally awesome," Emmett cheered and held out his fist toward me.

I grinned at him and bumped my fist against his. "Fo sho."

"Fo shizzle," Emmett was now grinning just as much as I was.

"Please Bella, tell me you're not like Emmett," Alice groaned as she looked at the two of us.

"I'm not like Emmett. I have tits and less muscle," I answered nonchalantly.

Emmett guwaffed.

"Jesus, Emmett, shut up," Alice complained.

"So since we seem to be done talking about me, how about you guys tell me what exactly it is you do. Okay, Alice, I know you're a wedding planner, but what about you, Emmett?"

Emmett opened his mouth to answer, but Alice barged in. "I don't just plan weddings. First, I plan the best weddings ever, and not for just anyone. I also design the most beautiful wedding dresses. I'm disappointed that you don't know that. My label is well known," Alice looked at me in shock and hurt.

"What's it called?" I asked her.

Now she looked miffed and a little confused. "How can you not know _Jazzine_?"

"Well, if you only design wedding dresses, then it's really no surprise that I don't know your label. Why do you only do wedding dresses, anyway?"

"It goes well with the wedding planning," Alice shrugged as she answered. That made sense.

I looked at Emmett, waiting for his answer now.

"I'm a surgeon. A plastic surgeon to be exact."

"Are you serious?"

Emmett nodded.

"You don't look like a doctor."

"Yeah, I know, but that's hardly my fault."

"So every guy in your family is a doctor?" I asked. "How frightening."

"It really is. You should hear some of the disgusting stories they tell at dinner. Ew," Alice shuddered.

"Hey, my stories are a lot less disgusting than Edward's and Dad's," Emmett protested.

"Whatever, Emmett. You're not any better. Seriously, never again do I want to hear about some guy who wants his dick chopped off and replaced with a vagina. It's just revolting to hear."

"Please, Alice, that wasn't even the worst one. I could tell you about this one chick who—"

"Shut up, Emmett."

"Oh look, our food," I almost screamed as the waiter arrived back at our table, balancing our plates.

The second Emmett got his plate, he attacked his food, grunting as he scarfed it down. I watched him, mesmerized.

"Bella, don't look at that - you'll get nightmares if you look too closely," Alice advised quietly she she took a small bite of her own food and gazed at her planner.

"It's kind of gross, but fascinating at the same time. It's like watching a starved wolf," I murmured to her.

"I'm tell you, you shouldn't want too long. You won't be able to eat for days."

Somehow I managed to tear my gaze away from Emmett's oddly accurate wolf impersonation and looked down at my own plate. While eating, I thought a little. So now I'd officially met my siblings-in-law to be. Both of them were people I got along with just fine, so Edward couldn't be too bad, right? I was pulled out of my thoughts by the ringing of a cellphone.

"Sorry," Alice said hastily before answering the call. "Jazzy? I missed your voice," she started cooing instantly.

"It's really sickening sometimes," Emmett complained, his mouth still full. "You'd think they were teenagers rather than a married couple."

I giggled quietly at that.

"Oh she's great, you'll really like her...what?...um, no, I'm afraid she's not...yes, I know...it might be problematic, but I'm sure it'll work out...oh, didn't I already say that?...Edward's not here...yes, I know, he's an idiot, but that's his loss. Now Emmett is here and he got to meet her first...in the hospital, of course. Where else would he be?...yes, I know, that's the reason I love you...okay, see you tonight," Alice ended the call with a gentle smile on her pixie-like face.

"Am I right to assume that your wedding was not arranged?" I asked her lightly.

She looked at me with wide eyes. "No, it wasn't arranged. Approved, but not arranged."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, even if my family didn't decide to whom I married, it's not really an uncommon thing in my family, so they still had a say in the whole thing, but they approved, so I didn't have to worry about it too much. Much different than in Emmett's case," she explained.

Emmett sighed loudly at that. I looked at him in question but he simply shook his had.

"Well, every family is messed up. At least you don't have a grandmother like mine," I said.

"Not true. Believe me, there are more than enough people in our family who would get along just fine with your grandmother," Alice objected.

"Please tell me those people aren't invited to the wedding," I whined.

"I wish," she sighed. "But that's not going to happen."

"Oh fuck. I'm dreading the day more and more with every second," I mumbled.

"So are you guys ready to go?" Alice changed the topic quickly.

I looked down at the plate in front of me. I'd barely eaten anything, but now I wasn't even in the mood to eat.

"Sure," I answered and smiled brightly at Alice.

* * *

><p><strong><em><span>AN:_ Awww, I'm sorry to break all of your hearts, but Edward just didn't want to show up. But if it makes you feel better, I already have the second chapter almost done, but I decided that I won't upload it...not without a few reviews at least. **

**Yes, I'm blackmailing you into writing reviews, I'm amazing aren't I? **

**Sooo...if anyone feels like betaing this story ( I know this chapter seems totally perfect, even if there are a fe typos) please tell me. The thign is that the one who betaed this chapter, is already working with me on FASGS for those of you who don't know what that is, it's my number one story _Forks Academy for Special Gifted Students_ **

**And because this story is not anywhere close to being done and we're also working on her story PEP_ (Prophecy of the Elemental Phoenix)_ I came to think that this story might need someone else. So if anyone wants to do the job just tell me, because I'm seriously in need for a beta. **

**Okay now after I promoted my own stories and begged for a beta, there should be something else I should mention...hmm, well I don't remember ...**

**So that's it from me now, review and tell me what you think even if it is only the first chapter :D **


	2. Chapter 2

**_A/N:_ Wow, I'm really surprised. Only the first chapter and already so many alerts, favorites and more importantly reviews :D I'm very very grateful for that and I thank everyone who had reviewed.**

**So, since I got what I wanted I worked pretty fast to get this chapter done and now comes the part where I announce that this story has officially it's own beta, who is pretty good at her job. _Justareaderfan_ totally made my day, by betaing so fast and she probably made yours as well. A big thank you for that *applause***

**Well, what else is there to tell you? Hmm... I'm not sure if I made it very clear in the last chapter, but Bella is of Italian origin, which means that she can speak this beautiful language.**

**Okay, now you are free to enjoy the chapter :D**

* * *

><p>"Oh god, I can't believe that none of these apartments were suitable for Edward. I could have chosen at least three," I moaned as Emmett, Alice and I stumbled through the door of Alice's house. It was cute and small, much like Alice.<p>

"Well, there was one that would have been totally his style, but you didn't like it," Alice interfered.

"It was all black and white, that's not really what I would call a home."

"Maybe you should just discuss this with Edward later on, we might have been wrong," Emmett commented as he threw himself on the couch.

The house suited Alice just fine. The big living room was connected to the kitchen and dining room as well and it was all in modern style. The living room was held mostly in a soft lilac and white, while the dining area was more pinkish. In the kitchen it was light red combined with white and I immediately felt at home here.

"This is perfect, Alice. I could totally live here." I made myself comfortable on the couch as well and sighed happily as I looked around. A lot of photographs were in the shelves and one at the wall behind the couch. A beautiful black and white picture of Alice and a blonde man. Her hair was styled much differently there. In a spiky halo around her head, it made her look more like a pixie. She was laughing on the picture, while the man, whom I assumed to be her husband, had his arms slung around her and rested his chin on her shoulder. He seemed to be whispering something in her ear.

"That's beautiful, Alice," I complimented her. She was searching for something in her shelves and cupboards and looked up.

"Oh yes, I know. Jazzy and I make a wonderful couple, don't we?" Her eyes were practically gleaming, while she smiled dreamily and looked at the picture.

"Well, I meant the hairstyle, but yeah you two are kinda cute as well." Alice sent me a scowl, which made me laugh.

"Usually she wears her hair like that, it's only your grandmother who made her do this," Emmett mumbled and waved his hand at Alice. He had his head buried in the pillows and didn't move anything else.

"Emmet, are you still alive?" I asked him carefully and poked him in the side with the tip of my toe. He grunted. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, same here," I murmured.

"Gosh and I still have to make dinner," Alice groaned and seemed to have finally found what she was looking for. She was carrying a folder in her arms now.

"I could make dinner," I offered.

"Would you really do that?" Alice asked me with wide eyes.

"Sugar, I wouldn't suggest it if I wouldn't," I told her with a wink.

"Alright, I wanted to make Paella, just look for the ingredients. I have some work to do," Alice shouted and already jumped up the stairs.

Sure, somehow I would find everything in her kitchen.

Forty-eight minutes, one broken glass and a few hundred curses later I was done and apparently not a second too late, because the doorbell rang.

"I'll be right down," Alice sang from upstairs. Emmett was already snoring on the couch, so I just went to get the door.

The person on the other side of the door momentarily took my breath away.

I blinked once to be sure that I wasn't dreaming.

"Holy fuck!" I gasped out. Realizing that I said that out loud I hit myself on the forehead.

"Ah, don't worry about that, darling. I get that a lot." the blonde in front of me answered.

She was tall, curvy and just so gorgeous that I might reconsider my sexual orientation.

She smiled down at me and strutted past me, leaving me speechless for a moment.

She looked like she had just jumped off the cover off Sports Illustrated. Come to think of it…

"You're Rosalie Hale," I blurted out, making her turn around in surprise.

"Well, actually it's Cullen now," she corrected and threw a look at her snoring husband. "I might reconsider that, though." she added with a shake of her head.

"Oh please don't. No one told me that my future in-law would be Rosalie Hale -Cullen. This is the best fucking thing about this whole marriage crap. I swear to god, you just saved my day." I jubilated and was about to close the door when something stopped me.

In my joyful outbreak, that one of the most famous models ever was going to be my sister-in-law, I didn't think to look if there was anyone else outside.

"I would like to get into my own house, if you don't mind that is," a deep and calm male voice spoke.

I peeked around the door and recognized the person immediately.

Without really thinking about it, I threw the door back open and opened my arms wide.

"Jazzy!" I exclaimed happily at the same time as the same thing came from behind me. Alice was just down the stairs and held her arms similar to me, while both had shouted happily. Rosalie looked back and forth between us with raised eyebrows.

Jazzy smirked slightly at me and Alice. "Please tell me you guys didn't rehearse this," he then pleaded.

"Not that I know of," I told him with a grin and shut the door behind him.

Alice ran toward him and jumped into his arms like a little monkey and started kissing him furiously.

"It's so cute, it makes me want to puke," Rosalie commented and settled on the couch beside the snoring monster. "Would someone explain to me why Emmett is sleeping?"

"He found the house viewing exhausting. We all did actually, although your presence just woke me up," I explained to her.

"Are you flirting with me?" she asked me.

"Only a little, but don't worry, I'm engaged," I answered with an overly wink.

"Oh right…well you kind of ruined a proper introduction but still, it's nice to meet you Isabella." Rosalie said.

"Just Bella."

"Well, then Bella," two hands were suddenly on my shoulders. "For the record, I'm Jasper."

I looked up to see Jasper grinning down at me.

"So you're real name is not Jazzy? How sad, I liked the name."

"Just pretend as if you don't know his real name. Most people don't even call him by his name." Rosalie advised.

"Shut up, Rose," Jasper told her.

"Rose?" Emmett seemed to be awake now and sat up. When he saw Rosalie sitting there he grinned like a fool.

"Hey Rose!"

She just rolled her eyes and turned her attention to me.

"Now show me!"

"Show you what?"

"The ring," she said as if it was pretty obvious right now. I held my left hand out toward her and she grabbed it instantly.

"Shit, that really is beautiful. I didn't know that Edward had taste." she exclaimed.

"I told you so," Alice called back from the kitchen.

"Are you sure he chose it on his own?"

"Not really, but neither of us was with him, so maybe he got something right for once."

"Seriously, guys, I'm scared. Does he really have such an awful boring taste?" I asked in between.

"Oh, you already know that he's boring? I thought you didn't meet him." Rose asked me surprised.

"I didn't. But we were just done looking at different possible apartments and there was not a single one that Edward would have liked, according to Alice and Emmett."

"Well, there was one, but the bathroom was pink –"

"Yeah, I didn't like that one," I interrupted Emmett, who did seem to be quite awake already.

"Dinner's ready," Alice announced. I hadn't even realized that she had set the table.

"Wow, this smells phenomenal. You didn't cook, did you Alice?" Emmett asked and eyed her suspiciously. She glared at him.

"No, I didn't. Bella did."

Emmett started shovelling his mouth full, right away and then he stopped.

"Holy shit, man. Bella, this is fan-fucking-tastic. Marry me, woman." he shouted.

"Not going to happen, Emmett. Bella is kinda hot for your wife." Jasper threw in.

"What?"

"Yeah, you missed a lot, when you were asleep," Rose said.

Emmett's eyes became glazy and he stared off into space. Rosalie hit him on the back of his head.

"Stop imagining stuff, Emmett," she scolded.

"Bella would you make out with Rose for my birthday? It would be the hottest present ever." Emmett begged me.

I looked at Rosalie, not sure if he was serious. She only shrugged her shoulders at me.

"Sure, why not?" I answered him. Jasper suddenly started coughing then, at the same time that the bell rang.

"I'll get that," Rosalie announced shaking her head at all of us. I was giggling at Emmett's dumbfounded expression and Jasper's coughing fit, while Alice was patting his back.

Rosalie left the room and I looked after her, my heart suddenly pounding. I was pretty sure that Edward was at the door, after all Alice had said that we would eat dinner with him.

"Please tell me you're checking her out," Emmett whimpered.

"Fuck yeah, she has the most amazing ass." I laughed loudly when Jasper's coughing fit became worse and sounded more like laughing now. Emmett jumped up raced around the table and lifted me off my chair to pull me into a hug.

"I swear, I love you Bella. You're going to be the best little sister ever."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Alice complained, while I was desperately trying to catch a breath.

"No offense, Al, but you're crazy," Emmett informed her.

Jasper gave up coughing by now and laughed loud enough to awaken the dead.

"Jasper, that is not funny," Alice whined and hit him on his arm. Jasper was almost falling out of his chair.

"Ah Bella you're like a teddy bear. A very hot teddy bear."

"Wow, I was only gone for a second and then this. Edward, I think Emmett is stealing your girl." Rosalie's voice was right behind me.

"Looks like it." I heard another voice speak. The musical sound of the male velvet voice made my heart stop for a moment. Or maybe it was the lack of oxygen in my lungs.

"Can't breathe," I gasped out.

"Right. Sorry." Emmett finally set me down. I took a deep breath and put my hand on my chest feeling how my heart pounded furiously. I quickly smoothed my dress and ruffled through my hair for a second, before I took a deep breath and turned around.

"Hey!" I greeted the person in front of me enthusiastically. I was not the least bit enthusiastic about meeting him, but I decided to behave for now.

The smile vanished from my face, when I saw the man in front of me. He was nothing like I imagined.

I was pretty sure that I had never seen such an amazingly good-looking person. I remembered that I'd wished for an at least decent guy, but he was totally fuckable. His face was perfectly symmetrical and nothing seemed to be wrong. He had full lips that just looked kissable. Then there were his absolutely amazing cheekbones and to top it all, he had the brightest green eyes I had ever seen. It was like looking at two glowing emeralds. But I couldn't decide if I liked his eyes the most or his strangely coloured hair. It had a strange bronze tone and was a little copper tinted. He had it combed back on his head and with his white button up shirt he looked like a business man.

He looked so good that I probably would have licked his feet if he hadn't ruined it. He was looking down on me with a slight frown on his face, but otherwise his face was unreadable as he started to speak.

"Hello, Isabella. I'm Edward. It is… nice to meet you and I'm sure we'll get along just fine." His voice sounded like one of these computer voices that sound as if they are talking to a retarded person.

_First impression: Fail!_

I ignored the hand that Edward held out to me and sank down on my chair instead, burying my face in my hands. Awkward silence followed after that.

"Are you okay, Bella?" Alice asked me softly and knelt by my side. "I guess this can be a bit overwhelming so if you want to go home –"

"I'm alright, Alice. This is just… too true to be good," I replied truthfully. I never really thought about how this whole marriage would work out, I had thought about the whole thing as little as possible, but now that it was really happening I was actually a little scared. Okay, that was an understatement. I would be shitting my pants right now If I was wearing any, but not because of the marriage itself. The thought suddenly occurred to me that it could be that Edward and I wouldn't get along, since he didn't seem to be fitting for my personality and I didn't know how I was going to survive when I had to spent the rest of my life with him.

"Umm…Edward, do you want some Paella? Bella made it, it's amazing." Emmett threw into the silence.

"Sure," was the curt reply that I heard. After a lot of shuffling around, Edward was seated, but the conversation hadn't started again. Only once did Edward compliment me on the food and I nodded in acknowledgement.

After millions of seconds filled with silence, Rosalie decided to talk.

"So would anyone care to explain the circus that you started here when I opened the door?"

"What circus?" Emmett asked innocently. I still hadn't looked up again, but I could imagine his expression.

"Jasper choking and you squeezing the life out of Bella," Rosalie replied and caused Jasper to cough a little again. He should really stop eating for today, he might actually choke.

"Bella was checking you out and apparently she likes your ass," Alice answered nonchalantly.

"Oh, really?" Rosalie asked at the same time as a confused "What?" came from Edward.

Now I looked up to see his utterly disturbed expression. I giggled at that.

"Yep, that was right after I agreed to make out with Rosalie for Emmett's birthday." I told him in a serious manner. I was not the least bit surprised when he seemed to have swallowed the wrong way and coughed in a manner similar to Jasper earlier only without the laughing.

"I hope that was a joke," Edward said to me when he recovered himself.

"Only if you think it's funny."

"I don't."

"Then it wasn't a joke."

"So, you're seriously going to do it?" Emmett barged in.

I laughed at his expectant expression. "To be completely honest with you, I would even do it now if I had enough alcohol in my system and Rose would agree."

"I won't stand in the way," Rose laughed.

"You are not being serious, are you?" Edward asked both of us disbelievingly.

"There's no way we'll let them drink now, Edward. No need to worry." Jasper calmed him.

"I feel kinda left out. Why Rose and not me? You met me first. Am I not good enough?" Alice complained and pouted at me. She looked adorable and I really didn't get why Emmett had called her crazy earlier.

"Of course you are. I just didn't think you want to be involved in this whole Lesbo action."

"I don't think I would make out with either one of you, but I would totally kiss the two of you once. As long as enough alcohol is involved."

"I'm sensing something," I sang and looked meaningfully at the two girls.

"I think we still have some Bacardi here," Jasper announced.

"Yes, I can see that there is no need to worry when all of you are so set on behaving like premature teenagers. There is definitely no need to worry." Edward commented.

_Second impression: Miserable fail!_

"Don't be such a party pooper, let us celebrate and regret it in the morning," I said to him already rising from my chair. Jasper had already left the room, probably looking for the Bacardi.

"There is not even an occasion to celebrate."

I gasped in faked shock and put my hand on my chest. "Is our engagement not a reason to celebrate?" I pointed at the ring on my finger. Edward looked back at me with a blank expression. Seriously, this guy really didn't get a good joke, did he?

"God, Edward you're so insensitive," Alice mumbled and Rose nodded in agreement.

"I'm not. I'm just being responsible. All of you have to work tomorrow and you're planning on getting drunk just because of some immature games. Plus we're going to celebrate the engagement on Saturday at the charity event."

I rolled my eyes and sighed.

_Ladies and Gentleman, meet my fiancé…_

"Fine, let's do something boring then," I huffed and plunged down on my chair.

Everyone moaned in disappointment. Even Jasper who had returned to the room.

"Any ideas? Otherwise Rosie and I can just go home and party on our own." Emmett said, waggling his eyebrows.

"Kinda gross, really," I grumbled.

"Well, I have the folder with all the pictures we took in the apartments, plus Edward and Bella still have to decide on a theme and a wedding date, so I guess we can just work on that. I'll go get my things for that." Alice said enthusiastically and skipped up the stairs.

"Wedding preparations for entertainment? That's got to be bad." Emmett complained.

I suppressed the grin on my face that would have given away that I totally agreed with him.

"Do you already have an idea for a theme, Edward?" Alice called before she was even downstairs. She managed to appear fast though.

"Not really. Can't we just do this the traditional way?"

"No, you can't. I'm one of the most wanted wedding planers and I'm currently sacrificing my free time for your wedding and I'm not willing to associate a totally boring and plain wedding with my name." she hissed and glared at Edward.

Then she turned to me with the sweetest smile. "Did you think of anything yet?"

"No 'Romance' and 'Spring Fever'. Other than that I did not think of anything. Although I kinda liked your beach wedding idea."

"Beach wedding?" Rose asked surprised. "That's –"

"Completely ridiculous. I don't wanna have my wedding on a beach." Edward interrupted.

"Okay," Alice stretched the word and scribbled something on her clipboard. "No beach then. Anything else?"

"How about a church?"

"Edward! The reception will not be in a church. Gosh, sometimes I feel like you don't pay attention. Weren't you there on my wedding and Emmett's wedding? By now you should know how it works, especially when I'm planning it."

"That is what I'm scared of. I don't want to be drowned in a sea of flowers."

"Nobody is going to drown you in flowers."

"Are you sure about that? I think you made it rain flowers at Emmett and Rosalie's wedding."

"That is something completely different. Try and concentrate here."

"How about 'Summer Romance'?" Rose suggested and threw her hands dramatically in the air.

"No romance," I protested at the same time as Edward shook his head.

"Maybe a cruiser?" Jasper now proposed.

"Oh Jazzy, that's a brilliant idea," I cooed. Jasper looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"It's not half bad," Edward allowed, but at the same time he threw me a funny look.

"Whatever, kids. Since you can't agree on that, I'll let you think until Saturday. Then you'll tell the whole family what you plan to do at your wedding." Alice instructed and looked at both of us strictly.

"Now we can get to something that will hopefully be easier."

She dropped the folder on the table that she had come down with.

"We took pictures of every corner in every apartment."

"Hey! I took the pictures." Emmett piped in.

"Whatever, Emmett. Shut up. So here is the first one –"

We spent the rest of the night looking at the pictures and both Edward and I never agreed. One apartment had a living room with an amazing view on the skyline, but Edward didn't like the view.

Then there was one where Edward liked the bedroom, but I found it too small and dark. We only agreed that we both didn't want to have a pink bathroom other than that there was not a single thing that we agreed on.

"Okay, I give up. I'll call the agent again tomorrow to get some new alternatives. Or maybe the two of you should just buy some land and build your own house at least then everybody is happy." Alice huffed in frustration and she shut the folder with a loud bang.

She stomped away to answer the phone that was now ringing.

"Hello...I'm sorry, I'll remember that next time…of course….what…but they…they only met each other…okay," Alice looked highly confused when she turned and handed me the phone. "Grandma," she mouthed and I instantly started to frown.

"What?" I asked her immediately not bothering to greet her.

"Is that how you greet your grandmother?" she complained right away.

"Yes, that is how I greet my grandmother. What do you want?"

"Isabella, do not speak to me like that. Did I not teach you respect? Why are you being such an awful child?"

"Just tell me what you want," I sighed. I was not in the mood for any lectures right now and I knew them all already anyway.

"We decided that it would be a good idea if you spent the night at Edward's place tonight." I could hear the expectations in her voice.

Had she fucking lost her mind? Of course she had, but that was by far the craziest thing that ever came out of her mouth. I had known the guy for about three hours and they already expected me to play hide the sausage with him?

"Why are you being such an awful grandmother? And when you say 'we' do you mean you, yourself and your other personality? I don't think that Dad would like the idea much." I started shouting right away. As a matter of fact, I wasn't too sure if my father would be against this, but he probably would be, since he liked things to be done properly and in the right order.

Everyone in the room looked at me in surprise. They had been talking to each other so I guessed that Alice had told them to whom I was talking.

"Isabella! Don't talk to me like that and don't be so dramatic. I thought you might want to study the daily routine of your husband already and maybe accompany him to work –"

"Yes, I'm sure that was all you thought about. You were definitely not secretly hoping that Edward and I would be humping on his kitchen table so that you can have your great-grandchild soon. I'm surprised that you even tried to be subtle about it."

I saw how Emmett's ears perked up and Rose started shaking with silent laughter. Edward was looking away from me so I couldn't see his expression.

"Isabella, there is nothing wrong with wanting a great-grandchild. A lot of people don't live long enough to see theirs, but I will be there and I'll take care that this one is going to be properly raised and not like you."

"Yeah, yeah I know. You want the soul of my first-born. That's nothing new, but still could Edward and I maybe wait with the baby making until we know each other? Not everyone gets it on right away."

"Isabella, you should really start speaking more lady-like. Anyway, if you're so against staying with Edward then I'll respect that. But we'll talk later." And with that she simply hung up. I stared at the phone in disbelief.

"You had the Talk with your granny on the phone?" Emmett asked laughing hysterically.

"Hardly. Every time my Grandma tried to have the Talk with me, she just ended up telling me how beautiful my children are going to be. She has it already planned out. First a boy with my dark curls and Edward's eyes, then another boy with Edward's hair colour but still my curls and my eyes and then a daughter with the same hair as the second and my grandmother's eyes."

"That's kinda creepy," Alice commented.

"Good luck handling the pressure, Eddie," Emmett laughed and patted his brother on the back.

"Well, guys it's getting late and I have to…oh wait I can sleep in, but still, I think it's time to go home now," Rose said and got up.

"That's alright, I'm tired anyway. I don't mean to throw you out Bella and Edward, but the day was kind of exhausting," Alice yawned now and stretched.

"Umm… Alice?" I started carefully

"Yes?"

"Next time you go somewhere with me, let me take my car with me," I shouted at her.

"Sorry, but that cannot be done," she answered unimpressed.

"Great and how am I supposed to get home? Your fancy driver is gone and I don't even know where we are right now."

"Edward will drive you home."

That seemed to be news to both of us, because he suddenly looked up with an expression similar to mine. And that was not impressed at all. Alice pushed all of us out of the door.

"Suck it up you two. In a few weeks you will be married and as Bella just pointed out, there are a few people who expect you two to be humping on the kitchen table by then, so you better start getting along." she told us. "Good night all of you." And then she slammed the door shut. Rose and Emmett laughed quietly.

"It was nice to meet you, Bella. I guess we'll see you again soon," Rose said and waved as she and Emmett walked toward a red convertible.

"See ya!" I waved back before I was dangerously aware of the fact that they had left me alone with Edward.

He seemed to be ignoring the whole thing. He was walking in front of me and came to a halt in front of a silver Volvo.

"That's your car?" I asked him

"Yes. Why?"

"No reason. It's nice." I said and shrugged.

_A Volvo? Seriously? Soccer moms drove Volvos, not people my age!_

Edward let out a sigh and opened the passenger's door for me. I looked up at him in surprise. In my whole life no guy had ever opened the door for me not even Jacob, the low-life, but here was Edward doing that and looking like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Get in," he urged and I hurried to slide in the car, so he could close the door again.

He walked around the car quickly and got into his seat.

I watched him when he put his seatbelt on, checked the rear-view mirror and started the car.

I suppressed a sigh when I took in his stiff posture. Either he was always sitting like that or it was my presence that made him feel uncomfortable. I looked out of the window and watched the lights and houses pass by.

"So, Isabella. I heard you just came back from your journey to India." Edward said after minutes of silence.

He might as well have been talking about the weather, with the way he spoke.

"Yes, that's right," I mumbled.

"Did you enjoy yourself there?"

_Yes, please act as if you care._

"Sure, I did. I learned how to belly-dance and it inspired me to write a bit more for my book." I answered.

"Your book?" he asked sounding surprised. The first non-negative emotion I heard from him.

"Yes, I'm planning on writing a book."

"Why?" he asked.

"Why not? I enjoy writing and I'm actually quite good at it, as soon as I know what to write."

Edward nodded, but his expression didn't give anything away.

"Something wrong?" I asked him.

"No, it's just that…well no offense, but don't you think you could do something more useful with your time?"

I stared at him, which he didn't notice, because his eyes were glued to the road.

"Like what? Finding a cure for cancer?" I mocked.

Now, he did turn his attention to me for a minute. A slight frown appeared on his face once more, but he composed himself fast.

"Like staying around and start to get acquainted to your duties," he said simply.

I sighed, for a brief moment I wondered if I should tell him that he sounded like my grandmother.

"Seriously, you sound like my grandmother," I told him, after that thought crossed my mind. "And I'll tell you the same thing I always tell her. In my opinion, cleaning the house and holding tea parties are not useful at all. What's wrong with me wanting to travel?"

"It's not wrong, but it kept you from learning what you were supposed to learn or not? As far as I noticed, I can see that you lack of proper etiquette and –"

"Maybe you should get married to my grandmother, you two would be perfect for each other," I cut him off.

"—ladylike behaviour." Edward continued, looking at me disapprovingly.

I rolled my eyes at him and looked out of the window again.

"I know that this hasn't been chosen by either of us, but you had your whole life to get used to this and behaving like a child now is not going to help matters," he continued.

I tuned his lecture out, he wasn't telling me anything that I hadn't heard already.

My grandmother loved to tell me the same thing again and again and seeing that I'm still 'behaving like a child', I guessed that this wouldn't do anything to change me.

I came to live with the fact that I was kind of freaky. I had never been completely normal and I dealt with it.

After a long speech from Edward that implied the words "responsibility", "maturity" and "importance", he finally pulled into the driveway of the palace that I was supposed to call my home.

"Well, Isabella. I hope you learned something from this, because I'm sure that there is a wonderful lady inside of you just waiting to –"

"Yeah, thanks for the ride. I'll see you…whenever." I cut him off and quickly got out of the car, before he could continue talking.

I walked into the huge entrance hall and wanted to go to my room right away, when I heard my grandmother's voice calling my name.

"Isabella?"

I groaned and turned into the direction of the living room where I heard my grandmother's voice coming from.

"Sit," she ordered. I rolled my eyes but sat down anyway.

"I am really not happy about the way you spoke to me today. I am your grandmother and you have to treat me with a lot more respect."

"Is that all that you wanted to tell me?"

"No, I also think that you should get more acquainted to your duties as a wife."

"What duties? Edward just said the same thing. I swear the two of you would make a wonderful couple."

My grandmother showed something that she considered as a smile when I spoke of Edward, but continued talking. "You are no longer a teenager, you can't just run around the place in ripped jeans and doing absolutely nothing useful."

"I'm really starting to wonder why you and Edward think that sitting around in a house all day, waiting for my husband to return and throwing senseless tea parties is something useful. Because it really isn't." I said sounding more annoyed than I intended to.

"Isabella! We are the high society and you being a part of that, should start socializing with people that matter and not with the house workers."

I got up from my seat and walked out of the room. "I'll think about that when I'm forty and don't fit in my ripped jeans anymore," I informed my beloved granny and stomped up the stairs.

I heard the old woman yelling something at me in Italian, but I seriously didn't care.

Just when I got to the corridor upstairs, I bumped into someone. Before I could fall, the strong hands of my father caught and steadied me, like he had done so often already.

"Bella, you should be more careful", he said in a serious tone and then walked past me.

I sighed. What I wouldn't give to have a normal life and family.

I quickly went into my room, before I met any other family member that reminded me how much my life sucked.

I changed out of the dress into my sleeping shorts and a tank top and threw myself in the pillows of my warm and comfortable bed.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty." I heard the cheery voice of Laurent intruding in my dreams.

I groaned and looked over to where his voice came from. In that exact moment he chose to open the curtains, causing me to flinch and hide under my blanket.

"Mrs Cullen if you don't get ready fast for our assigned shopping trip, then your mother and grandmother will wake up and stop you from coming along." Laurent said, trying to sound formal.

I threw the covers away only so that I could glare at him. "Do not ever call me Mrs Cullen again," I hissed.

"Awe, don't be so sensitive darling. That will be your name soon anyway, so you should start getting used to it." Laurent laughed and danced out of my room.

"_Proca troia"__**(Fucking hell)**_, I cursed as soon as he was out the door.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

I was pushing the cart slowly, while Laurent inspected the cupboards and threw something in the cart every now and then.

"So your future Count Edward is the male version of Granny Dahna only more fuckable, did I get that right?" Laurent questioned when I was done telling him about my day yesterday.

"If you say it like that, it sounds horrible. And don't use that Devil's name, it makes her seem more perfect than she is."

"What do you mean?"

"Her name means 'Lady', as if I needed any more reason to hate her." I sighed. Laurent chuckled quietly at that.

"Do you want cereals?" he asked me after a few minutes.

"When my grandmother sees me eating them, I'm sure I'll have to hear another one of her lectures," I replied and cringed. Just the thought of it made me want to cry.

"You'll have to anyway, as soon as she sees the outfit you are wearing." Laurent commented as he eyed me with raised eyebrows.

I looked down at my outfit. The weather was rather nice today and I had decided to celebrate that with a pair of hotpants, a white top that hung loose on my shoulders and a pair of Flip-Flops. Yes, my grandmother will kill me.

"Just throw the stuff in," I told Laurent, who grinned at me in return.

For some unknown reason I always found grocery shopping kind of calming. It probably had a lot to do with Laurent, who always told me what he was planning to cook.

On the rare occasion that I got to go on my own, I used the time to simply let my mind wander.

Just when Laurent was telling me about his latest Crêpes creation, my phone rang.

I fished it out of my pocket and was surprised when I saw the caller ID.

"Alice, how did you get my number?" I asked her instantly.

"Well, good morning to you too," Alice answered happily.

"Yeah, yeah, morning. Now tell me how you got it."

"I might have borrowed your phone yesterday, when you were sleeping," she said slowly.

"What?"

"I had to. I need to be able to get in touch with you at all times." Alice defended herself.

I sighed. "Okay, what do you want?"

"Well, since yesterday's schedule was all messed up thanks to you and James, we need to go to my workshop today. We also have another appointment with the real estate manager and we have to find you a dress for Saturday. Rose agreed to accompany us." Alice started listing right away.

"It's only Tuesday and why is Saturday such a big deal anyway?"

Alice gasped in shock. "It's the annual Cullen Charity Ball. You should know these things as a future member of the family. Actually with your family background, you should know this period. My mother organizes this event every year. The rich, beautiful and powerful all attend, which is why it would be something like social suicide not to go."

"I've never been there and I really don't see the charity in that," I replied darkly, while Laurent was inspecting a watermelon closely.

"Which is why you are socially dead. Most people don't really know you exist. Some know that you do, but only because your parents mentioned you. Other than that, nothing." Alice told me lightly.

"Wow that really crushes my heart. I was already wondering why I never saw my face on the news" I said sarcastically.

Alice didn't seem to notice that, because she sounded as cheerful as always.

"Well that's going to change now. Saturday will be the official announcement of your and Edward's wedding. It will draw a lot more attention to the fusion of Swan enterprises and the Cullen Research Institute."

"Well, I'm glad that my eternal doom is such a good PR for our parents," I sighed.

"Yes, it's wonderful. Okay, now be ready and waiting in about half an hour, because we have a long day." Alice said and hung up quickly.

I stared at the phone.

"Judging by your incredibly enthusiastic expression, I would guess that we have to speed this up?" Laurent said, although it sounded like a question. I nodded with a sigh.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

I helped Laurent carrying all the bags inside quickly, before I rushed into my room grabbed my favourite handbag and rushed outside again, before my grandmother decided to return form the pits of hell or wherever she was. As soon as I stepped out of the house, Alice's limo came to halt in front of me. I didn't really see the sense in waiting unit the driver got out of the car to open the door for me, so I just simply hopped in on my own.

"Good morning, Bella," Alice greeted cheerfully as I sat down opposite her.

"Morning," I mumbled back to her. I smiled a little when I noticed that she was wearing her hair in the spiky hairdo that I had seen on the photograph in her living room.

She wore a yellow pleated dress that that had a black stripe underneath the bust line and a matching pair of pumps. I guessed that she was inspired by today's weather.

"Bella, I'm not sure if you are properly dressed," she said slowly as she inspected my outfit in return. I only shrugged at that.

Alice muttered something and I was sure that I heard Edward's name coming from her mouth.

Countless minutes later, we arrived at Alice's workshop. When I stepped out of the car, I was momentarily awed.

Her workshop was the size of one family home and was completely made of glass. From the little parking lot led a short aisle to the front door of the shop. Little trees were on the sides of the aisle.

Alice led the way, while she started talking right away.

"This aisle is just wonderful, don't you think? All of my costumers love walking up to my shop, simply because they already feel like this is their wedding day, when they walk down this aisle." she told me.

I only nodded and took in my surroundings. After a few moments I noticed that I already knew this neighbourhood.

"The best thing is that it is only down the street from James' shop. We always meet up to eat lunch together." she kept on blabbering

That explained why it looked so familiar.

Alice was now unlocking the door and led the way in. I noticed that even though it looked like one big house, it was only a giant room but in the corner I saw a spiral staircase, so there was more than one room.

In the room we were currently in, were mannequins in beautiful white dresses all over the place. I counted 11 of them. Then there were two platforms on each side of the room in front of giant mirrors. I plopped down on the white couch right next to the entrance, but Alice pulled me off right away. She pulled me to one of the desks that stood on the other side of the room.

"No time for breaks, we need to get this done now," she said and suddenly held a measuring tape in her hand.

"Alice why are there five desks in here?" I asked her curiously, while she was taking my measurements, scribbling the numbers on a paper.

"I can't do all the work alone, now can I? I have a few talented young people working for me here. They are both currently enjoying their free time, but they are going to be back to work next week." she answered absentmindedly. She walked across the room and went to get two fabric rolls from a shelf. She was comparing the two, before she looked at me and then came back to scribble something else down.

I just stood there patiently and let her do, her work.

"Okay let's go upstairs," she then said and led the way.

Upstairs was what I assumed to be the actual workshop.

The room was much less formal than the bright room downstairs. Sewing machines, fabrics and sketches on the walls.

"Right now, it's actually tidy, but once they are all back, it's going to be a chaos," Alice told me and positioned me in front of the wall. That particular area was painted white and not dark red like the rest of the room and I guessed the reason as soon as Alice held a camera in her hand.

"Ugh, take of the shirt, it doesn't show your body properly," she complained.

"What? Why?"

"We need it to work. So we know what features should be more pronounced and stuff like that. Don't worry I will not show them to Edward." Alice giggled.

I huffed at that and took of my shirt, so that Alice could take pictures of me.

I kind of felt like a prisoner when Alice was taking shots of me from every angle.

"We're done," she announced cheerfully after a few minutes of playing model.

"Oh, thank god," I murmured.

"You should get used to pictures. I will need to take a lot more of you once the dress is done." Alice warned.

"Why?" I started whining right away. I hated it to have my picture taken.

"Because you are getting a unique Alice Whitlock dress. It will wear your name and will be put into our Catalogue." Alice answered.

I looked at her in question.

Alice sighed.

"I have shops all over the country filled with my dresses. Now these dresses are the ones that I purposefully designed to be hanging in those shops, waiting for someone with enough money to buy. Workshop, on the other hand, is unique. Apart from making the dresses for my yearly collection, we make the custom-made dresses here as well. Those dresses will be named after the person who ordered it and will be put into the Jazzine catalogue." Alice explained quickly, while she started to grab things from the table next to her.

"So I have to make some kind of photo shoot?" I asked disbelievingly.

"Yes and it's going to be really big. I was planning on putting Rose's and my dress in again. The three of us should definitely make a shoot together as the three Cullen wives, actually I'm not a Cullen wife, but you get the point."

I just nodded, knowing that that was a good enough answer for Alice.

"Okay, let's go and meet with Edward. We have to be on time, otherwise he'll be grumpy."

_Why was I not surprised by that?_

Alice told me that we would pick Edward up at the hospital.

When I asked her what hospital she meant, she, once again, threw me a look that said that I was supposed to know this.

"My grandfather not only found a research institute, but also a hospital. The biggest and most advance hospital in the United States. I'm really disappointed that you don't even know that. The Cullen Clinic is famous." Alice scolded.

"I don't really like hospitals," I answered.

Alice shook her head in sadness. "You really need to know this as the wife of the future heir. The Cullen Clinic is so famous because of the combination with the research institute. It's not just for healing, but also for finding new cures and enhancing certain treatments. In combination with Swan Enterprises that establishment will be even more productive than before."

"And Edward works in that hospital?"

"Yes and so do Emmett and Dad. Dad mostly treats the patients with incurable diseases like Cancer, AIDS and stuff. Edward works with him every now and then, which is why they went on that Africa trip together. Right now Edward is dead set on becoming the head of Oncology." Alice rolled her eyes when she mentioned that.

The car stopped and the door was opened for us.

Once again today I was in awe. And once again I was standing in front of a glass building. I guess I wouldn't need to ask where she got her inspiration from.

Although it wasn't the whole building that was made up of glass, then again I couldn't see the whole building, because it seemed to be endless.

"How big is this thing?" I asked.

"That is something I don't know, but I can tell you that I got lost in there when I was a little kid and I never saw everything of the hospital. I know that in the east wing is something like a little mall on the ground floor."

I nodded slowly, not knowing what to say.

I noticed that the glass part in front of me only held a very big reception area at the ground floor and some kind of catwalks on the upper levels.

"Enough gawking, let's get Edward," Alice instructed and tugged me along.

"Hello Mrs Whitlock. What can I do for you today?" the woman at the reception asked in an overly friendly voice.

"We're here to pick up my brother," Alice replied.

"Sure, which one?"

"Edward."

"Okay, just a moment," she said slowly and started typing something in the computer in front of her. Then she turned her attention back to us. "He's in Sector G, but I'm afraid that he's still in the middle of surgery," she said with an apologetic smile.

"That's alright, we'll wait for him," Alice answered right away.

"Okay, your name please?" she said, while looking at me.

Taken by surprise I started stuttering, "I…uh…Isabella Swan."

The lady smiled pleasantly and typed something again, before handing me and Alice a card that looked like those hotel keycards.

"Take lift number 17," she said and pointed to the lift on the left side.

Alice nodded and sent her a sweet smile before we went to lift number 17.

She needed a while to find the right button to press, but eventually made it. I noticed why she had to look first. It wasn't labelled with numbers, but with Sectors of different letters. This one had the Sectors A to H.3.

"Umm… Alice, what are these cards for?" I asked her.

"Oh, they're for the doors and paying in the cafeteria or the mall here. The main purpose is to track people, when they get lost. That's why Bree knew that Edward was still in the operating room."

The lift came to a halt and Alice led me to the Sector we were supposed go. I got the feeling that Alice highly enjoyed the catwalks that connected the different parts of the building.

I didn't enjoy it that much, because I had been stupid enough to look down and the height was nauseating.

Alice slid the card she had been given through the card slot next to the door at the end of the catwalk.

Behind that glass door it looked like a normal hospital. People walking around, others sitting and waiting, occasionally crying.

I saw Edward walking toward us, but he didn't seem like he had noticed us.

Alice made sure to change that though. "Edward!" she shouted, making everyone turn to us.

Edward looked up from the clipboard a nurse just handed him.

Something like a smile tugged on his lips as he saw Alice, but when his eyes spotted me, his expression immediately turned into a frown. I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

_Nice to see you too, Edward._

"You are early," he noted in a clipped tone.

_Early, late…can't you people just decide?_

"Better than late," Alice replied with a pout.

"Yes, I suppose that's right. Just let me change really quick and I will be with you in a moment," he said smoothly.

"Ugh, we'll wait in the car. Entrance A," Alice told him and dragged me back into the direction we just came from.

"So, the purpose of walking in here and finding Edward?" I asked a little annoyed, mainly because of Edward's reaction when he saw me.

"Now you know where your husband works," Alice answered.

"He's not my husband," I complained, sounding a lot like a little child.

"But he is your fiancé, you might as well get used to the fact that you will be married in a few weeks, you had your whole life to get used to it," Alice said strictly.

"Now you sound like Edward."

Alice only shook her head at me and chuckled at my pouting face.

When we were on the first floor again, Alice quickly handed the cards back to Bree, the receptionist.

In the car I decided to sit next to Alice.

"Bella don't you want to sit next to Edward?" Alice asked me as she pointed at the seat I usually took.

I pulled a grimace just at the thought and I was pretty sure that I heard Alice sigh.

After a few minutes that I spent listening to Alice ranting on and on about me and Edward needing to get along soon, said person opened the door and came to sit across from me and Alice.

I had to endure his disapproving gaze once more, I supressed the sigh that threatened to escape my mouth and turned to look out of the window.

"So, how long will this take?" I heard Edward's velvety voice ask Alice.

"Depends on you two, I planned about two hours."

There was no more talking after that. I didn't look at either Alice or Edward for the rest of the drive.

Finally the car stopped, just before I was thinking about choking in this unbearable silence.

Alice and Edward got out of the car before me and I was scared to get out when I heard an awfully nasal voice.

"Alice, it's so nice to see you. You look absolutely gorgeous and this must be Edward. I heard so much about you. Now where is Bella?"

Lauren. I didn't exactly resent her as a person, but her voice made me definitely uncomfortable in her presence.

"Right here," I called and awkwardly got out of the car as well.

"Bella, I'm so—" she started, but then looked me up and down. "Well you look…ordinary."

She definitely made no effort to hide the distaste on her face.

Ah yes, welcome to the world of the rich and beautiful, where comfortable outfits are a death sin!

"I'm not supposed to be thanking you for this, am I?" I asked her dryly.

"Isabella!" Edward hissed.

He really needed to stop calling me that, otherwise I might accidently call him Granny.

Lauren didn't seem to mind my comment much, because she already moved on.

"Okay in this area we have three possible apartments and then a few blocks further there are two more," Lauren said to Alice, who was once again in business mode.

"Only five?" Alice asked in surprise.

"Well, five in this area, I understand that you only planned two hours, so I tried to keep it close. There are more on this side of town, but we would have to drive a little for that and I wasn't sure if you had enough time for that." Lauren started explaining quickly.

"Oh don't worry about that we'll take the time," Alice reassured her.

"That's even worse than a shopping trip for a dress," I grumbled. Alice only rolled her eyes at me, but hooked her arm through mine, while Lauren led the way.

She led us to a slightly grey house, with a beautiful front yard.

"I thought we agreed on an apartment and not a house," Edward noted and looked at Alice while saying that.

"Well, actually nobody ever agreed, since you haven't asked Bella what she thinks of that," Alice replied. Once again a look of annoyance crossed his features.

"To be honest, this is a semi-detached house. I thought you might want to see it." Lauren threw in, successfully drawing Edward's attention to her. I really didn't need any of that.

Lauren unlocked the door and we stepped into a narrow corridor.

"Right there in front you can see the living room," Lauren said and pointed at the open door right at the end of the insanely small corridor. "And to your right is the kitchen. It's entirely new."

Edward went straight into the living room, while I pulled Alice into the kitchen. I really didn't need to be in the same room as him all the time.

Lauren had apparently decided to follow Edward, which didn't matter much, because they appeared in front of my eyes just seconds later.

The kitchen had a big hatch similar to the one in my parents' house that showed the dining area that was connected to the living room.

"I don't really like it," I said. I thought about living in here. The hatch spoiled a lot of things. I wouldn't be able to cook without seeing Edward in the living room. Not exactly what I want.

"What is upstairs?" asked Edward, completely ignoring me.

"Two bedrooms and a bathroom."

Well, maybe I would change my mind about this. Two bedrooms? That was all I was asking for.

"Lauren, I don't think it's suitable," Alice now said.

What? Of course it is. It has two bedrooms. Two! That is all I needed. I don't care if I had to share a bathroom, if I had my own bedroom.

"I thought you might say that. Luckily I have other options for you two choose from." Lauren smiled one of these big cheesy smiles that you usually only see in adverts.

The next three hours of my life were definitely not pleasant.

Edward and I kept as much distance between us as possible, even if Alice tried to get us closer to each other every now and then.

For instance, in this one apartment, where the bathroom was the size of a shoebox. I went in to look at it, when Alice decided to push Edward in after me, who managed to make me trip over my own legs somehow and hit my head against the sink.

"Fuck, that hurt," I complained when I managed to stand upright again and rubbed my forehead.

Instead of an apology from Edward or Alice, I got another disapproving look from Edward, while Alice just sighed at the two of us. She seemed to be sighing a lot today.

Another reason why this was a waste of time, was that Edward and I didn't agree on a single thing. Which was only to be expected.

We didn't agree when it came to the colour of our bedroom:

"What in the world do you have against purple?" I complained.

"Purple is not a colour that seems suitable for a bedroom of a married couple," Edward replied.

"Who cares? I like purple."

"But I don't."

"What colour then? Black and White?"

"That would be an option."

"But I don't want my bedroom to be black and white," I hissed.

"Actually, it would be our bedroom and I think black and white is a lot more sophisticated than purple."

"And I think black and white is a lot more sophisticated than purple," I mimicked him, which he luckily didn't hear. Alice did though and even when she was shaking her head at me, I heard her giggle quietly.

We also didn't agree when it came to the kitchen:

"I think it is very suitable," Edward said.

"And I think it's the perfect place to kill myself," I shot back.

"What's wrong now?"

"Everything. The cupboards don't have handles and everything just looks like stone. I'm not able to cook in a kitchen that I'm not comfortable in."

"Then hire a cook."

"What if I don't want to hire a cook?"

"Then you shouldn't be complaining about the kitchen."

"So, you are allowed to complain and I'm not?"

"Well, actually what I do is voicing my opinions. You, on the other hand, sound like a whining child."

I didn't honour him with a response. Instead I just huffed and left the kitchen.

Yes and it went on like this and I could tell that both Lauren and Alice were getting annoyed with us. Well, it wasn't my fault. If the robot that I was supposed to marry would at least have a little sense of taste, then we might have actually agreed on something.

"Okay. Rose will be here in five minutes to pick us up and Edward, you can take the Limousine. I can't stand your arguing any longer." Alice announced as she stepped into the bathroom Edward and I were just inspecting. We hadn't even started anything yet.

"Lauren, I think the next time I'll just come alone or maybe with Emmett or something, but this is kind of senseless," Alice said turning to her.

Lauren bobbed her head in agreement.

"Alice, I'm not sure if you should be choosing the apartment," Edward said when we were outside again.

"I won't choose it, but I will narrow it down. Otherwise I would have to stand even more of your arguing."

"No pink," I told her

"And no purple," Edward added.

"You know, if it was just the colours you didn't like you could just paint it differently."

"Yes!" I exclaimed and I was pretty sure that my eyes were glowing.

"Can we talk about this later? I really have to get back to the hospital." was Edward's only reply.

"Just go," Alice mumbled.

He pulled Alice in for a half hug. "I'll see you later," he said then he turned to me and held his hand out. "Good bye Isabella," he said politely.

Just then I was saved by Rosalie honking furiously as she pulled the car to a stop in front of us.

The red convertible that I saw yesterday.

"I love your car, Rosalie," I shouted and jogged toward the car.

"Yes, I know. It's awesome." Rose said grinning back at me.

I didn't even consider opening the door. I jumped right into the backseat. I plopped down and made myself comfortable, putting my feet over the edge of the car.

"Be careful not to scratch my baby," Rose warned.

Alice slowly made her way to us and sat down in the passenger seat. Then she turned to look at me.

"What?" I asked self-consciously.

"Don't you think that was very immature?" she asked.

"I do a lot of immature things, you have to be more specific."

"You could have at least said goodbye."

"Yes, I could have," I agreed.

Alice sighed for what must have been the millionth time today and turned to Rose to tell her how our day went. I decided that it was not interesting to me, so I dozed off, enjoying the wind on my skin.

"Seems like they are perfect for each other." I heard Rose say, but I was sure that I only dreamed that.

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><p><strong><em><span>AN:_ Like, love, hate? You should definitely tell me. In my opinion their first meeting didn't go that bad... it could have been worse, I mean sure they don't get along, but whose fault is that? Exactly, it's my fault! But you wouldn't be reading this if Edward and Bella were hitting it off right away...**

**Okay since I already got mor reviews then expected for the first chapter, I want even more for the second (I'm greedy, I know) Just tell me your ideas thoughts and feel free to critisize.**

**So today I've been told once more that I have very criptic and far too philosophical thoughts, which led me to the idea to share those thoughts with you.**

**My Philosophical question today is: _ God can do anything. If he can do anything, can he make a rock so heavy that even God himself can't lift?_**

**Think about that while you review and I will try to think less about things like that (it really gave me a headache) and type more. If you're done thinking about it, you might wanna check out my other stories and don't hate me for creating a twin sister for Bella (I actually enjoy promoting my self isnt that great?)**

**If you don't like my story you should totally read, _The Fox_ by _SACM4 _**

**I kinda enjoyed the story and the best thing is that Bella owns a mountain lion and a fox in it. I won't tell you any more though, so go and read it yourself.**

**Think, review and read! That's all I got to say for now, thank you and bye-bye :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**_A/N:_ I am amazed, shocked and honoured. Why? Because you guys rock. Two chapters and already this many reviews? That jsut left me speechless...not to mention all the Alerts and Favorite story and so on. That definitely helped improve my mood.**

**Okay, so I updated about a week later than I wanted to and I'm really sorry, but the truth is...I just simply didn't want to type. I wasn't really feeling up to it nad always distracted myself with other things. But because I didn't want to let you guys down I kicked myself in the ass and finished this chapter. It may not be as long as I wanted it to be, but it's close enough :D**

**Sooo...again I have to thank my lovely beta _justareaderfan_. She's awesome, she rocks and makes this thing a lot more bearable for all of us! By the way, I apologize for any typos in the author's notes, she doesn't beta those ;)**

**Hmmm...I'm pretty sure that there was something else I wanted to say, but I jsut can't remember...oh well. Just read the chapter while I'm trying to remember oh and in case you didn't know: I'm not Stephenie Meyer and therefore do not own Twilight or any of it's characters.**

**This just shocked you, didn't it?**

* * *

><p>I stared at the dress that I was supposed to be wearing tonight.<p>

Alice and Rose spent hours with me in that high fashion boutique, only to buy _this_ dress for me. I didn't even get a say in the matter. That is when I discovered that Emmett was right, Alice really is crazy.

Well, not like _crazy_ crazy, but crazy…that definitely made more sense a second ago.

The dress was lying over the chair in front of my dresser just waiting for me to wear it.

I was fighting with my demons here. If I went to this stupid charity thingy, I would not only seal this whole marriage deal, but I would also officially be something like celebrity.

I mean sure the paparazzi will not be standing in front of my house like they do with Amy Winehouse or something, but if I decided to get wasted and then go swimming naked in a public lake, I'm sure that would be on the news.

I sighed.

"Knock, knock." I heard Laurent's voice coming from behind me. I jumped, startled by his sudden appearance.

"Sorry." he said with a chuckle. I just shrugged.

"So, the maid that was sent to you by your grandmother to help you getting ready just spoke to me," he said slowly.

I rolled my eyes and threw myself on my bed.

"She's currently hiding from your grandmother, because she is scared that she might kill her." Laurent added.

"It's not my fault. I don't need someone to dress me and the witch knows that quite well, she just wants to annoy me." I told him. My grandmother had sent her favorite maid, Maria, to me so she could help me get dressed. After five attempts of trying to tell her politely that I could dress myself, I had to scream at her in Italian. That was also the moment that I realized that she didn't even speak English. Hopefully she was not crying in a corner somewhere.

"I'm sure that this was her intention." Laurent said in a tone that suggested that he was being sarcastic.

"Or maybe she just wants to make sure that I don't run away, which is an option I'm considering right now."

"And where would you go to?" Laurent asked lightly.

"I'm sure that Leah will be more than delighted to let me live with her," I answered.

Leah was my college roommate and best friend. She was the only one of my college friends that my grandmother and parents liked, because she had been specially chosen to be my roommate.

Yeah, when you are the daughter of the CEO of one of the most successful technology companies, then people will just forget about the personality and like you for who you are. Oh, I meant what you are.

"I'm sure she would. You could go, you know. All you have to do is change your name and never contact your family again." Laurent told me. That man seriously spent too much time with me in my childhood. He knew exactly which buttons he had to push to get the reaction that he wanted out of me.

Right now, he picked up the dress that I hated with a burning passion and looked at me expectantly.

"I hate my life." I exclaimed dramatically and got up from my bed to snatch the dress out of his hands. I quickly opened the bathrobe that I had put on after I had gotten out of the shower.

"Bella, wait until I'm gone!" Laurent yelled in shock.

"What is it with gay people and naked women?" I asked him casually.

"I'm not gay," Laurent informed me through clenched teeth.

"Then you shouldn't be complaining."

"Don't you think your father will kill me if he finds out I saw his precious little girl naked?"

I let out a humourless laugh. "I'm not 'his precious little girl' anymore, ever since the day I started thinking for myself. And I'm not naked, I do actually wear undergarments every now and then."

I slipped out of the bathrobe and quickly slid into the dress.

I turned around to see Laurent with his back to me.

"You do realize that there is a mirror in front of you, right?" I asked him.

Laurent made some kind of strange noise and turned back to me. His expression showed that he would be blushing if his complexion was light enough to allow that.

Seriously, for a guy that claimed to be ten years older than me he acted more like teenager than I did.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"Just zip me up, buttercup." I commanded and he obliged momentarily.

"So what shall I do with my hair?" I asked pointing at the messy bun on my head.

Laurent looked at me with raised eyebrows. "How would I know, do I look like a girl?"

I eyed him with a thoughtful face, before I shook my head to answer his question.

"You know Laurent, I think you would look pretty good with dreadlocks." I told him in a serious manner.

That only made him laugh. "Sure and then I will lose my job, because your mother can't go around bragging with me anymore." he answered.

I stuck my tongue out at him, being the mature person I knew I was.

"Well, I'm just gonna go now. Good luck tonight and try not to drink too much." he said to me.

"Can't promise you that." I mumbled, knowing that that was probably the truth.

I stared at myself in the mirror and wrinkled my nose in disgust. It wasn't even that the dress was ugly or that I looked bad I it, it was just not my style. Which meant I had to do something with my hair that went along with the dress and I couldn't think of anything boring enough. Maybe a ponytail would do the job.

Just when I was in the middle of debating whether or not I should just wear something else, my phone rang. As soon as I saw the caller ID, I sighed.

"What?" I hissed.

"Whoa, what's wrong with you?" Alice asked slightly taken aback by my 'cheerfulness'

"A lot, to be honest. But right now the only thing I'm having problems with is my dress, hair and probably also make-up."

"I thought this might happen. Don't worry, sweetie, we'll be there in a heartbeat."

And then she just hung up on me. I stared at the phone. We? I hope she was speaking of herself and Rose. Maybe Emmett. Hell, even Jasper, but I was not, repeat, not in the mood to deal with Edward any more than necessary.

I already had a plan for this evening before I considered running away. Enter together with Edward, look like a pretty plastic doll next to him for a few moments, go and see if I can find something more interesting, join the family at our table, look pretty once more when the general attention was turned to me and then run. It sounded like a good plan to me.

But I had this awful feeling that Alice was going to ruin that for me. Or maybe, just maybe I was going to ruin it myself.

And thinking of the devil, that little pixie just skipped into my room. Rose followed her.

Huh, maybe there was a god after all and he had heard my inner ramblings.

The two of them looked gorgeous, although I didn't expect anything else from these two. Alice was wearing a beautiful silver dress, while Rose wore a red one.

"We have to work quickly. Edward wants to be there on time and he's currently waiting downstairs." Alice informed me with a roll of her eyes.

Okay maybe my inner ramblings were being ignored, like always.

Alice pushed me into the chair and immediately started pulling on my hair.

"No need to rip it out. If you want me to go bald you can also shave it off." I complained.

"Shut up and let the masters' work." Rose told me and started brushing my hair.

I just sighed and let them do whatever they thought was best. I was beyond caring at this point, simply because I didn't care about this whole event in general.

"So your little charity thing…I still don't get what the charity part was about it," I said casually, mainly to distract myself from the violence that was taking place on my head.

"It's easy. The invitations are not handed out they are bought. It's a pretty genius idea." Alice explained.

"Why would anyone buy an invitation to a party?"

"Rich people have a funny way of thinking. As soon as something is too expensive for the general public, they start being all over it and that's how it started. Now it's mainly to be part of one of the biggest parties of the year. If you want to be seen you go there." Rose explained.

It made sense in a way, but still that was ridiculous. Maybe there was something wrong with my 'rich people thinking'.

I endured the torture without any complaining on my part, for which Alice was extremely grateful.

"Voilà! If I may say so myself: We rock!" Alice exclaimed and high fived Rose.

I looked at my reflection and was met with the sight of beautiful curls framing my face. Even more astonishing was the fact, that they managed to give me that certain air of glamour, that both of them seemed to have around them at all times.

They should seriously consider going into business as Make-up artist or something.

"That's so much better than the dress." I said and smiled at the two of them, who frowned in return.

"Don't you dare complain about the dress. It was hard work to pick one out that went along with Edward." Rose told me with narrowed eyes.

Well, that explained why I didn't like the dress.

"By the way, that goes along with it." Alice shoved a small white clutch into my hands.

I sighed quietly and then followed the two of them downstairs.

"Edward, we are ready to go." Alice called loudly as we descended the stairs.

I faintly registered that Edward and my Grandmother stepped out of the living room, but I was busy glaring at Laurent, who stood at the end of the staircase smiling smugly.

"I don't see why this should be amusing to you." I hissed at him.

"Well, then you don't have a sense of humour like I do.", he simply replied.

I smacked him on his arm.

"Isabella, is that how a proper lady behaves? And have I not told you that associating with the house workers is no longer tolerated." the witch immediately snapped. I heard Laurent sigh next to me.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry for treating the man who feeds all of us like a normal human being. That's just unacceptable." I mumbled sarcastically.

"It is indeed." my grandmother replied curtly. I looked at her in disbelief. I didn't even know why this shocked me since I knew that this woman had no heart, but seriously I thought even the witch was capable of feeling gratitude.

Laurent chuckled at my expression and then he left, probably to vanish in the kitchen, one of the few places that were safe in this house.

Edward had only watched this exchange with no expression on his face. Okay, that was not entirely true. He did narrow his eyes at me once.

I noticed that the crow was dressed up as well in a dress that she thought was fashionable. I'm pretty sure that even back in the Ice Age people wouldn't have worn something as disgusting as that dress.

"Please tell me you're not going to be at the ball as well." I whined.

"Of course I am, our whole family is going. Your parents, your grandfather and I will be joining you a bit later though. We have to wait for your father to return."

A high society event with Edward and my family. How much worse can it get? Oh yeah, I'm meeting my future parents-in-law. "Death come and get me.", I mumbled too low for the crow to hear but Edward's disapproving expression showed that he did hear that.

"We'll see you later then for dinner." Alice said with a polite smile and then started tugging me toward the entrance. It seemed like she couldn't get away from my grandmother fast enough. Not that I could blame her.

We all shuffled quickly into the limousine, and even though I tried to prevent it, I somehow landed next to Edward. I glared at Rose and Alice, who were obviously the guilty ones. They just looked at me with innocent expressions.

"Edward, what do you think of Bella's dress?" Alice asked after a moment of silence. I had been looking out the window and immediately whipped my head around at the mention of my name.

Edward didn't even bother looking at me. "It's nice." he murmured.

"Edward you didn't even look." Rose threw in.

"I saw it when she came down with you guys, didn't I?"

Rose sighed, but said no more.

"I think we did an amazing job with making these two match. Now they look like a real couple." Alice cooed and I felt Edward go rigid next to me. I froze as well, but I just glared at Alice for a brief moment before I scooted over to create more space between me and Edward.

In the corner of my eye I saw Alice and Rose exchanging glances, but I could care less. I turned my attention back to the scenery that passed by and didn't bother taking part in the following conversation.

"We're here." Alice said cheerfully. I groaned in response.

The door opened and Alice turned to look at me and Edward. "You two will get in there together and you better look like a happy couple." she instructed.

"What for? The whole world already knows that this an arranged marriage, or not?" I replied with a sigh.

"You can still make it look as if you agree with the whole thing." And with that said, Alice got out of the car followed by Rose.

The excited shouts that came from outside definitely didn't motivate me to go out there.

"It's just the press. As long as you don't do anything stupid and just walk through, you should be fine." Edward said.

"Are you telling me that I would do something stupid?"

Edward didn't reply and just got out of the car. Then he turned around to offer me his hand. I looked up at him and saw that same expressionless mask on his face that he wore most of the time. I huffed and ignored his hand, getting out of the car on my own. As if I needed his help.

The scene in front of me immediately made me want to crawl back into the car, but when I turned around I saw that it was already gone.

"Isabella, what exactly are you waiting for?" Edward asked me.

"The moment that I wake up and realize that all of this is just a fucking bad dream." I hissed.

I mean seriously, there was a red carpet in front of us and so many reporters, cameramen and such that were all shouting random things at us.

I rolled my eyes at the whole thing. This was just a charity event, not some fucking award ceremony.

Edward sighed. "Watch your language, Isabella."

I shot a glare in his direction, but the audience around us stopped me from saying anything in response. Instead I just strutted forward, across that ridiculous red carpet, ignoring everything and everyone around me.

I entered the giant building in front of me and took a deep breath once I was out of the flashing lights.

I never liked this kind of attention. I had successfully gotten myself out of this madness when I was seventeen, simply by letting my parents send me to a boarding school in a small town named Forks. I had only been there for a year, but after graduation I was off to college and therefore free.

I sighed and took in my surroundings. By the looks of it I was in the main hall of a hotel.

The over excessive use of the colour gold almost made me want to puke, but my disgust was being redirected when Edward entered.

"Do you honestly think that this was the right moment for a tantrum?" he asked me in disbelief.

"What tantrum? You wanted me to walk in, right?"

"There is a difference between walking and stomping."

"Whatever, could we just get it over with?"

Edward opened his mouth, probably to reply, but then he just narrowed his eyes at me and closed his mouth again.

"Bella and Edward, why does it take you guys so long to move your asses in here." Alice voice complained as she and Jasper walked up to us. I didn't even know where they came from, but I didn't really care.

"You look beautiful, Bella." Jasper complimented me with a smile.

I scrunched up my face in distaste, while looking down at the dress, causing Alice to glare at me.

"Let's just get going." Jasper suggested and tugged gently on Alice's arm.

The two of them led us through the entrance hall to a set of doors. I already heard the music coming from the other side. From the sounds of it, it was an orchestra playing quietly, something that I would describe as elevator music.

"Ahh, I see that Mr. Cullen has joined us. Now who is the lovely lady by his side, if I may ask?" a pleasant voice spoke.

I hadn't even noticed that there was a host next to the door.

He was eyeing me with a curious expression and I restrained myself from pulling a grimace at him.

"That is Ms. Swan, the newest member of _our family_." Alice informed him with a polite smile on her face as she emphasized the words "our family". The host quickly nodded in understanding and hurried to open the door for us. "It's a pleasure to meet you Ms. Swan, I hope you enjoy yourself tonight." he said when I passed him. I quirked an eyebrow at him and smiled sarcastically. The chances that I was going to enjoy myself here were pretty low. The host returned my smile with a confused one.

I turned my attention to the room we had just entered and I had to admit that it was breathtaking.

A big and beautiful ballroom that seemed to be made up of pure gold. At least that was how it looked like in the first moment. Different than the main hall, they actually managed to make it look tasteful. The patterns and ornaments on the walls were all gold or at least gold-rimmed. And the golden chandeliers turned the light in the whole room gold as well. It was nice to know that my personal hell was this beautiful.

The ballroom was separated into two areas. One that was probably supposed to be the dance floor, even though people mostly just stood around chatting. The stage was right to our left, facing the other side of the room where the tables stood. A few people already sat there, chatting and drinking a glass of wine. I just saw a waiter walking around with a tray of champagne and my eyes followed his trail until I found out where the bar was. It was on the opposite side of the door, but my view was mostly blocked thanks to the people standing around and laughing obnoxiously.

"Ah there you are." I heard Rosalie's voice as she and Emmett walked up to us. Just like Jasper's tie matched Alice's dress, Emmett's matched Rosalie's.

Emmett grinned widely when he caught sight of me and rushed over to hug me fiercely. Rose and Alice didn't like that though and immediately started yelling at him for ruining the dress. I sighed and rolled my eyes, while Emmett gently set me down again, rolling his eyes as well.

"Emmett, if I see you do that one more time, I will show each of your patients pictures of you when you were little." Alice threatened.

Apparently that was a good threat because Emmett paled instantly and backed a few steps away from me. I thought back to Edward's birthday parties that I had attended. I was pretty sure that Emmett must have been there as well, but now that I thought about it I only remembered…

I let out a sound of understanding before I giggled. Everyone turned to me with curious eyes.

"I forgot how chubby you were as a kid." I said to Emmett, still giggling as I remembered the heavy little boy that was constantly shoving food in his mouth.

"Chubby? He wasn't chubby. That boy used to be large almost swollen." Alice objected.

"Thanks a lot dearest sister." Emmett commented with a grimace.

"Aw baby, don't mind them. We both know that this is all pure muscle now." Rose cooed and patted his chest lightly.

Emmett's face was lightened by a grin again when he turned to look at his sister.

"Who said that I used to be large?" he asked her, waggling his eyebrows.

"Ugh, Emmett. Nobody wanted to know that." Edward groaned with a grimace on his face.

_Oh my god, Edward Cullen shows human emotions!_

"Well, there is something that you might wanna know." Emmett said to his brother, putting his arm on Edward's shoulder. "Aunt Maggie is looking for you."

Before Emmett pulled Edward away, I thought I saw a horrified expression on his face.

"I think I should go and see Aunt Maggie too, before she finds me.", Alice said and pulled Jasper along to follow her brothers.

Rosalie looked after them with a somewhat wistful expression on her face. "Why are you not going with them?" I asked her.

"I could ask you the same thing." she answered with a half-hearted smile and then gestured for me to follow her.

"Why should I? It's not like I'm a part of the family."

"Well, actually you are and I'm pretty sure that Aunt Maggie would like you very much."

The way Rose sounded made me thoughtful.

"Sounds like she doesn't like you very much." I noted. Rose rolled her eyes as if to say that this was an understatement. She had led me to the bar and we both sat down on a stool.

The bartender was immediately there to serve us. "Ah Mrs. Cullen. The usual?" he asked with a smile on his face.

"Yes, two of those please." she replied gesturing to me.

"Two white Russians coming up.", he said.

I looked at Rose with raised eyebrows. "White Russian? Seriously? Shouldn't you be drinking wine?"

"Maybe later." Rose said absentmindedly. Our drinks were handed to us, Rose took a sip and then resumed our earlier conversation. "Aunt Maggie is just one of a few family members that can't stand me," she told me.

"If they don't like you, what makes you think that they'll like me?"

"It's not really liking, it's more like accepting. And that has definitely nothing to do with your personality. Honestly I thought you would know, since you were born into this whole high society thing." Rose shook her head in mock disappointment.

"Your family has a history, a pretty impressive one at that. Better than the Cullens actually, but my family doesn't. The Hale name is not associated with any big companies or royalty. My mom is a kindergarten-teacher and my father has to stay at home after his last stroke."

I nodded slowly in understanding. I had almost forgotten that I was back in my grandmother's world.

"And they don't really care that I managed to become a successful model. So there you have your reason why the family is over all not that impressed with me," she added and emptied her drink.

I didn't exactly know what to say about that and I didn't have to say anything, because a female voice interrupted our conversation.

"Is that you Rosalie?" a dark-haired woman walked up to us. She seemed to be about my age and her face looked vaguely familiar as she walked toward Rose, flipping her curly hair over her shoulder and smiling so brightly that my eyes burned.

I heard Rose sigh, before she put on a similar smile. "Jessica!" she exclaimed as if she couldn't think of anything better than meeting her here.

"Rosalie, I haven't seen you in ages. There is someone who has been dying to meet you and I promised I would introduce you two."

Rose looked at me and opened her mouth probably to protest, while Jessica started pulling on her arm.

"Go already, after all the person is dying to meet you." I encouraged, but Rose just looked at me doubtfully. She couldn't do much though, because Jessica already dragged her along.

So here I was at some super fancy party all by myself at the bar, hoping that this would all end very soon.

I somehow ended up ordering three more drinks downing them all one by one.

At least I hadn't promised Laurent not to get drunk, otherwise I would have to feel guilty later on.

"All by yourself?" someone asked me casually. I turned and saw a blonde guy sitting down next to me. His pale blue eyes were inspecting me carefully, while he smirked in satisfaction. He kind of creeped me out.

"Hey, I'm Mike." he introduced himself and held his hand out, after I didn't answer him.

I just looked at his hand and scrunched up my nose._ Yes, even I could be snobby…_

"Mike Newton," he elaborated as if this would make me want to talk to him.

I sighed. "Nice to meet you Mike." I said in a tone that suggested that I didn't really care. I turned my attention to all the fancy dressed people all over the room, watching them chat with one another and wave across the room to greet someone. A few faces were familiar to me, thanks to the wonderful invention of Television.

"So, how come I've never seen you here?" Mike asked me. I had almost forgotten about his presence.

"Maybe you need glasses," I said to him with a tight smile.

He scooted closer with his stool. Too close. I could feel his breath on my neck when he leaned down and brushed a strand of hair away. "I'm pretty sure that I would have noticed someone as beautiful as you even without glasses." he murmured huskily.

I shivered at his contact, but not in a good way. I never really liked it much when guys whispered in my ear. It usually just annoyed me.

Mike seemed to have noticed my shiver and interpreted it the wrong way, judging by his chuckle.

"How about you and I get a room for a little more privacy?" he whispered.

_What the fuck?_ I suppressed the urge to puke all over the floor or maybe even on his pants.

"How about you get lost, so _I_can have a little more privacy?" I snapped back at him.

"Ah, feisty. Just how I like it." he replied, licking his lips while his eyes roamed all over my body.

I was pretty sure that the disgust on my face must have been pretty obvious, but it didn't seem to bother Mike. He probably got this look all the time and didn't think much of it.

"Well, I'm not into stupid." I mumbled and got up, determined to go and find Rose.

I slid of the stool and barely managed to take one step before I stumbled awkwardly.

That was either one of my incredibly clumsy moments or I had too much to drink. I really hoped it was the latter, because I would need a lot of alcohol in my system to survive the upcoming dinner.

If I had been on my own in this moment I would have probably fallen on my face, but fortunately or maybe unfortunately Mike was there to grab a hold of me before I could make contact with the floor.

I came to the conclusion that I'd rather have my head hit the floor, causing me to bleed so hard that I would have to go to the hospital, rather than having Mike's arms around my midriff. When he got me back upright his hands rested a little too long on my hips.

"You can let go now, you know." I hissed at him.

"But do you really want that?" he asked me, bending his head down to my ear again.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment before I opened my mouth to snap something at him. "I—"

"Isabella, it's almost time to get seated." I heard a familiar voice. If he hadn't called me Isabella, this would have been the most beautiful words to me in this moment. Especially coming from his beautiful lips with this purely angelic voice._Whoa there! You did not just think that about Edward Cullen, right?_

Edward now stood beside me and Mike and looked at the two of us with a stoic expression.

"Newton," he acknowledged with a nod.

"Cullen." Mike spat. Edward's eyes wandered down to Mike's hands that were still resting on my hips.

"You do realize that this is my fiancé that you are molesting." Edward said calmly.

Mike's face was priceless. He immediately took his hands off of me and held them up in a defensive manner. "I didn't….I wasn't…" he started stammering and then pointed his finger at me."She didn't say anything about a fiancé."

I rolled my eyes at him. "I also didn't tell you my name." I noted, causing him to narrow his eyes at me, before he walked off mumbling under his breath. Judging by the tenor of his voice, it wasn't exactly what you would call polite.

I turned around to face Edward, who didn't look happy at all. In the corner of my eyes I was a few people looking our way, whispering. _Great, just great._

I smiled gratefully at Edward. "Thanks for saving me," I said sincerely. "He was really starting to become a pain in my ass. I mean, serious—"

"You shouldn't get yourself into situations like that. You're not some teenage girl who can throw herself at the next best guy," he said to me in that disapproving tone of his.

I just gaped at him. I snapped out of staring like an idiot, when Edward turned on his heel to walk away.

"You think _I_ threw myself at _him_? What exactly—" While I was talking I quickly moved to follow him, but stumbled once again.

This time I was going to hit the floor for sure. But again, I didn't. A strong hand reached out and caught my arm, pulling me close to him in the process.

I think I never stood this close to Edward. I could practically inhale his scent. Mint and aftershave mixed with something I couldn't exactly place.

His glowing green eyes were gazing down on me and for a moment I had the strangest feeling somewhere down in the pit of my stomach. It quickly vanished though, when I noticed the frown on Edward's face.

"Isabella, are you drunk?" he asked me quietly.

I sighed. "I'm not sure yet, but seeing that I'm still speaking coherent sentences, I would say no."

He didn't like this answer much, but he let it go and released his hold on me.

Without saying anything else, he led me across the room and I noticed that most people were now seated.

I could hear Emmett's booming laughter before we reached the table and I smiled a little to myself.

When we got closer Rose spotted us and walked right up to me. "I'm so sorry, for leaving you. I—"

"It's okay, really. It's not like you left me alone in the wild or something." I reassured her with a giggle.

"Oh please, that's almost the same thing." she replied with a roll of her eyes.

"Is that Isabella?" I heard a gentle female voice ask. I looked up to see Edward talking to a woman. She was smiling in my direction and gestured with her hands for me to come over.

"It's so nice to finally meet you. We've been hearing so much about you that I just couldn't wait to meet you." she gushed and hugged me gently.

I was a little startled by her actions and was at loss of words.

She seemed to notice, because she let out a quiet chuckle, before she let go of me.

"I'm Esme Cullen. Your future mother-in-law," she explained with a beautiful smile on her face.

Now that she said that I could have kicked myself for not noticing the resemblance between her and her children.

She had the same dark hair as Alice and showed similar dimples to Emmett's when she smiled. The thing that really caught my attention though, was her emerald green eyes. Exactly the same as Edward's. I smiled back at her, but before I could even say anything, someone walked up behind Esme.

I looked up and was immediately awed by the sight in front of me. Just one look told me that this was Edward's father. He looked so much like his son, that it was almost creepy. But instead of those glowing green eyes, he had shining deep blue eyes and blond hair, which made me wonder where Edward had gotten his strange hair colour from.

"It is an honour to meet you Isabella." he said to me with a smile, holding his hand out for me to shake.

Completely dazed I just took it and shook it swiftly.

I heard Rose giggle next to me, which caused me to snap out of my daze and turn to look at her in confusion.

She just shook her head and fought the smile off her face.

Whatever moment there was between the Cullens and me, it was now definitely ruined when I heard the voice of the witch come closer.

"Carlisle, Esme. It is so lovely to see you again," she sang with a wide smile on her face.

My parents were right behind her. I noticed that my grandfather was not with them.

_I wonder how he got himself out of this…_

Mom was looking around waving occasionally at someone she knew and Dad just walking by her side. Like always he was radiating this certain 'importance'. I was still waiting for the day when I would see my father looking relaxed and at ease. I briefly wondered if this was going to be my future. Being with a husband that was practically married to his business and handled everything in his life like it was a company. And I would be like my mother at one social event after another gossiping about someone's new dress and make sure to be seen by as many important people as I could.

I sighed at the thought. All of this would definitely be more bearable if I didn't have a brain.

I watched my parents greeting every single one of the Cullens after they had acknowledged my presence.

We were joined by Aunt Maggie soon after my parents' arrival. She was an elderly woman, about my grandmother's age and from what I gather she was Carlisle Aunt. I could tell right away that she was not only the same age as my grandmother, but probably had the same character. _Maybe it's a generation thing…_

When the greetings were over, we all took a seat. Of course I had to sit next to Edward and on my left was Carlisle, who sat at the head of table. Esme sat opposite of me, continuously smiling.

When dinner was served, I tried to take as little part as possible in the conversation. I was concentrating on the ridiculously small serving in front of me.

But eventually the conversation managed to involve me, which was something I had been hoping not to happen.

"So Isabella, I understand that you have just returned from India. How was it there?" Esme asked me, trying to involve me in the conversation.

Everyone's eyes turned to me and I quickly reached for my glass, taking a big gulp of champagne before I spoke. Like I mentioned earlier, I really didn't like attention on me like this.

"It was great, really. I learned how to belly dance." I attempted to joke.

Este's smile widened, she obviously liked the answer. Edward on the other hand sighed and the disapproving glare from my grandmother told me that she didn't like that answer too much either. Before she could say anything though, the waiter appeared to clear the table and serve the next course, I quietly requested another glass of Champaign, realizing that I had emptied mine already.

My grandmother opened her mouth, probably to say something that would sound perfectly normal to everyone else, but was another lecture directed at me. Surprisingly she was being interrupted by Aunt Maggie, who thought that playing twenty questions with me would be an adequate thing to do to pass time. Only that I didn't think so.

I hated questions like:

What are your future goals?

What do you think about family?

How many children are you planning on having?

At some point I considered telling her to fuck off, but I threw that thought away really fast, knowing that my Grandmother, Mother and Father would give me hell for that later on. Probably Edward as well.

Still, I didn't see the sense why she would ask me about my future goals. It was apparent that she didn't want to hear anything like _I'm planning to be a successful writer and hope to inspire people with my work_. What she wanted was:_I'm planning on being a wonderful wife, understanding mother and honourable representative of the family._

Oh well, boo-fucking-hoo that I have something meaningful in mind.

When I nearly choked on my Champaign after she asked about children and told her that I would hopefully never have any, I was definitely done in her book.

_Isabella Marie Swam, heir of an old aristocratic Italian family= Fail!_

Aunt Maggie as well as my bitch of a grandmother and my father all looked a little…displeased with me. I didn't dare looking at Edward, because I already knew what his face would look like.

But in all honesty people, what exactly do you expect from me? People frown at me just because I'm being human. Should I honestly feel bad for having a soul?

Maybe you should just sell your soul to your granny, I'm sure she will be happy to take it…

After I failed the question: What do you think today's society really needs? By not answering with world peace, I was finally released out of this ridiculous interview that started to become more and more like a Miss America pageant. Esme and Carlisle both excused themselves to make their way to the stage.

"We thank all of you that so many have managed to make it here today." Esme started.

"Like every year we have not only taken money from the invitations that you bought, but there were also contributed many donations. And like every year, not just my husband and I want to thank you, but also the many people you have helped today. This year the donations go to an organization called "Aloha for Japan".

"What happened to the people in Japan is not only terrible but also traumatic for all the people concerned and their families. Times like these should not only remind us to appreciate what we have, such as our families and our wealth, but should also remind us that we all share this world and we should open our hearts to help our fellow human beings. Thank you once more."

Okay, forget whatever I said about me having a soul. This woman had a heart. The way she had spoken, so compassionate and sincere, had almost made me cry. I was so in awe that I forgot to applaud.

When the applause faded, Carlisle stepped to the microphone, attempting to speak. I noticed that he took his wife by the hand while he did so and I smiled fondly at that.

"Well, there is nothing more to add to that. But as we all know, every day cruel things happen and to lighten all our hearts a little I would like to announce a joyful occasion, after many years of waiting it's almost too good to be true. Our youngest son, Edward and the lovely Miss Isabella Swan will finally tie the knot in the upcoming two months. The exact date will not be announced right now, but let me assure you that you shouldn't stuff your dress pants away, just yet."

He earned a few chuckles for that. Carlisle gaze turned over to where we sat and I knew that this was going to end badly.

"Edward and Isabella, why don't you join us up here?" he asked in a way that sounded more like an order than a request.

Edward rose to his feet and looked expectantly at me. I was a little slow, so I needed longer to grasp that in order to get on the stage I had to get up from this table. Edward offered me his hand to assist me or maybe just to put on a good show for all those people watching us. I took his hand gratefully and somehow managed to get on my feet. The moment that I stood up, I realized that I had definitely had too much to drink.

The good thing was, I never had a problem holding my liquor and I was still able to maintain a proper conversation when I was drunk. The bad thing was that I completely lose any kind of body coordination once my limit was reached.

Of course Edward didn't know that and after a few steps he let go of my hand, leading the way to the stage. I was concentrating so hard on walking straight and somewhat graceful, that I didn't look exactly where I was walking.

I already heard the murmuring get louder and Edward's voice called: "Isabella, where are you going?" just seconds before I somehow crashed into a table.

I didn't even know how I managed to do that, but I knew that shrimps in your dress were really uncomfortable.

I felt several hands trying to help me get up and I just grabbed the one that was the closest to me. As far as I could remember, I hugged someone and pecked him or her. If they would have let me sit safely, nobody would have realized that I had been pretty damn close to wasted.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

The next morning I woke up with a familiar buzz in my head. I groaned and dragged myself out of my bed. I slowly stumbled downstairs to the kitchen, my eyes just open enough to prevent me from running against any walls.

"Ah, the disaster queen is awake." Laurent sang, when he saw me. I grunted in response.

He sighed. "Sit down, I'll make you a cup of coffee." he said and pushed me gently into a kitchen chair.

"I think I need a whole can," I informed him.

"You always say that and as far as I know you've been worse than last night. Although I did tell you not to get drunk."

"No, you wanted me to promise that I wouldn't do it and I didn't promise, so don't even try to make me feel guilty."

"Oh, I'm not gonna make you feel guilty. You can do that all by yourself." Laurent piped.

I looked up at him to see him approaching me.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, confused. The grin on his face was not a good sign. He placed my favorite cup in front of me and threw a magazine on the table.

I looked at it and was instantly awake.

I had always hated those Gossip magazines, but I never really paid attention to them. Well, I did now, because there on the cover was a beautiful picture of me hugging…._Mike Newton?_

_Oh boy, I was so dead._

Right beside the mention of an article named "Ten simple ways to drive him crazy" and above the incredibly useful "5 top secrets for a perfectly faked orgasm" was the one headline that made me spit my coffee back out.

_**Beautiful Swan occupies Another Lake?**_

Seriously, first of all: Who the fuck comes up with headlines like these? Okay, maybe I shouldn't expect too much from a magazine called O.M.G.

Secondly, why in the world was it Mike, who I had cuddled and pecked?

And last, but definitely not least: I was so dead, that even dead people seemed more alive.

Just imagining the witch in her anger made me shiver and I really didn't want to think of Mom and Dad when they were angry.

_When you see my face hope it gives you hell, hope it gives you hell…_

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><p><strong><em><span>AN:_ Anyone else disappointed in Bella? I am a little, but hopefully she will redeem herself.**

**SO after thinking really hard, I still can't remember what it was that I wanted to tell you guys... too bad. Okay, so I already have a slight idea of what I want to happen in the next chapter, but you know, I never really settle on these things. If you have any suggestions just holler at me and I'll see what I can do ;)**

**A very stupid question that somebody asked me a few days ago: Why is air a lot like sex?**

_**Because it's no big deal unless you're not getting any!**_** Yes very fnny, I know -.- Sometimes I have to wonder about the people that I waste my time with. Speaking of wasting time, I wasted just about 4392 seconds of my life with that annoying little Nyan Cat. THe thing actually has a website, where you can listen to it NON-STOP! If you don't know it, you're lucky, if you do...you know that I seriously wasted precious seconds of my life there.**

**Hmm, I think I'm getting off-track here, so let's get back on track. Today, I don't have anything to promote...sad, I know, but to save you from getting bored until I update again (as if that will ever happen) I've got a little riddle...this time one that can be solved:P**

**_If you break me_**  
><strong><em>I do not stop working,<em>**  
><strong><em>If you touch me<em>**  
><strong><em>I may be snared,<em>**  
><strong><em>If you lose me<em>**  
><strong><em>Nothing will matter<em>**

**Well, I'm done now with my senseless rambling :D I expect many many reviews and I will do my best to update faster :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**_A/N:_ Yes yes, I let you wait again and hosetly I'm not sure if it was worth the wait... I would love to have some cool excuse, but the reality is that I jsut get easily disracted and bored. So in the middle of typing I get bored of whatever I'm typing and start occupying myself with something else. I know it's a bad habit and I'm working on becoming a better writer :P I actually just spent all of my free day to finish this chapter and I hope you gyus like it **

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><p>"I am very disappointed in you, Bella. I thought giving you the freedom that you wanted, would help you growing into a responsible adult. You are no longer a child, so you should stop acting like one and start taking on your responsibilities, like every other adult does." Dad said to me in a hard voice. I could have handled the witch a lot better. She would have screeched at me, I would have pretended to listen until she got on my nerves and then would have yelled something back at her, before I would have left the room and cursed her along the way.<p>

With my father it was different. I have never been able to stand up against him, like I did with my grandmother. Or talk my way out of things like I did with my mother. There was just no escape.

I nodded slightly at his words and he continued.

"Bella nobody expects you to be perfect-" I cast a look at my grandmother, who grimaced at his words"- but I can expect that you try your best. You are now representing two very important families and it doesn't do any good for anyone if you go and get drunk at an important event like that. Mrs Cullen puts her soul into this every year and this year the focus is not on what she has achieved, but on you playing around with a hotel heir." Dad sneered and threw a magazine on the table.

It was not the same as the one Laurent had presented me. This one was called "Glitz and Goss" and showed a picture of me and Mike at the bar, when he had been whispering in my ear. _First of all, who comes up with shitty names like this? And second, why did I not notice that someone was taking pictures?_

I groaned. "Dad, I wasn't eve—"

"I don't care what you did or didn't do." he interrupted me right away. His gaze on me was intense and I could see that he was definitely not happy with me.

"Bella, if you want to be a part of this family you better start doing the things that you are asked to do. Stop acting like this is a punishment, we are only doing what is best for you."

I got up from my chair. "No, you are doing what you _think_ is best for me. Why does nobody ever as—"

"Isabella!" Dad thundered, causing me to sit back down immediately. "This is not a discussion. Either you will do what is expected of you ever since you were born or you will have to live with the consequences of your behaviour. And I am sure that you do not want to know what they are." With a simple hand movement he told me that I was free to go now.

I went quietly out of my father's office and made my way up to my room.

I crawled back in my bed, wrapping myself tightly inside the sheets and closed my eyes.

I ignored the single tear that ran down my nose.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"Ms Swan, it is time for you to get up. Your mother is expecting you downstairs for breakfast." I heard the high-pitched voice of Josie, one of our maids. Normally I was left alone by the maids, mainly because I didn't want or need them around. But since the talk with my father last week I had been forced back into old routines. It was almost like reliving my childhood only that I was aware now that this wasn't exactly how I wanted to spend my life. I had to get up at nine so that I could be ready for breakfast at ten. Sometimes my father would be there and other times he wasn't. My mother would go on and on about the different things she planned on purchasing and complained about the house workers. Occasionally she asked me if I was alright, which I had to answer with a smile and tell her that I was perfectly fine.

Like I mentioned before, my mother wasn't exactly the motherly type, although she tried every now and then. But she wasn't capable of really dealing with me. When she asked me how I was doing she only wanted to hear how happy I was, because if I told her otherwise she would go frantic, telling me that I should be happy with all the things I had and calling a psychologist to "fix the child". I knew that she didn't mean anything bad by doing it, because she just didn't know any better, but looking back at my life so far the realization of how much my life sucked was just disturbing.

In this past week I hadn't heard anything that was related to the wedding and Alice also didn't contact me. I wasn't sure if I should be sad or relieved about that.

I spent most of my time in my room, buried under a pile of books to occupy myself with. I was yearning to go outside and do something. The only problem was that I didn't have anyone that I could hang out with. So I stayed inside, only leaving my room when I was asked to.

I put on one of the summer dresses that my mother bought me two days ago and went downstairs to the dining room.

I never liked this room much. It was too formal for my taste and the two ends of the table were so far apart that you would need and intercom to talk to the person on the other end.

The chair at the head of the table was empty today, but my mother sat at the table already, eating her yogurt while reading "Glitz and Goss". I silently shook my head at that.

I sat down opposite of her and mumbled a greeting.

"Good morning, Bella." she answered. I looked up at her in surprise.

Ever since I was little one part of my punishment, when I had done something wrong, was to call me by my full name instead of my preferred nickname. I usually had to redeem myself in some way before I earned the name 'Bella' again. As far as I could remember I hadn't done anything that would have gained my parent's approval. Well, I ate my meals with them, but that was probably not it.

I saw my grandmother enter and she took a seat next to her daughter. "Good morning, Isabella," she said in that stiff way of hers when she tried to sound nice.

_Too bad that she never succeeds._

"Good morning." I replied, turning my attention to my food. I held my breath waiting for one of them to speak. I knew that something was up, since my mother seemed to find me worthy of my nickname again and my grandmother attempted to be nice. The combination of these two things couldn't possibly be good.

I was pretty sure that they both waited for me to say something so they could carefully slip in hints here and there until the whole truth was out. But I didn't do them the favour and eventually my mother cracked.

"So Bella, since your little 'escapades' are still a topic of gossip we have come to a decision." she said slowly.

I looked at her with a wary expression.

"It also, hopefully, is a way to make you realize the position you are currently in and help you get accustomed to it."

I quirked an eyebrow at her. "We hope that this solution will help you with your respons—"

"You're moving in with Edward." my grandmother barged in, obviously annoyed with Mom beating around the bush.

"What?" I exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Oh, don't act all surprised. You would have moved in with him anyway." my grandmother said dismissively. I glared at the witch while she chewed calmly.

"Yes, but that was supposed to be after the wedding, which doesn't even have a date yet." I hissed at her.

She looked at me in a way that told me that I was not really impressing her with either my glare or the hissing.

"We do have a date," she announced. I opened my mouth to scream something, but there was nothing in my head in that moment. I looked at my mother for confirmation. She gave me an apologetic smile.

"I thought _I _got to choose when the wedding will be." I spat out through clenched teeth.

"No, we wanted you and Edward to decide together. However, we have come to the realization that giving you too much freedom is not good for you. That is why we set the date ourselves. You have a little more than two months, so I guess that this is in your best interest." my mother replied.

In my best interest? Yeah, right…

"And why in the world do I have to move in with Edward? I don't think this will change anything."

"Well, Edward is a responsible young man. We hope that his influence will help you to finally get rid of that teenage way of thinking. You need to grow up and fulfil your tasks." my grandmother told me firmly.

"What tasks? Me looking like a plastic doll at all times? I don't think that I need any kind of training, practice or whatever for that." I exclaimed.

My mom threw me a dark look. "Being a good wife, a proper representative of your family and eventually a good mother. One day it's going to be your job to keep this family together." she told me with authority in her voice, that she rarely used.

I restrained myself from snorting. What exactly are you supposed to do when the life that you were born into is not suitable for you? I had a few options of what I could do. All of them involved me being free as well as me disappointing my family._Family?_

What did family mean anyway?

If you looked it up you would find something like this: _In human context, a __**family **__is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children._

Didn't sound very loving to me. And yet, I surrendered. I always did, with no real reason as to why. I sighed and dropped my shoulders.

I saw a hint of a smug smile on the witch's face, but I decided to ignore that.

"Fine, when do I move?" I asked my mother.

"Today."

"Today?" I asked in surprise. How exactly do you move in one day? And Alice hadn't even found an apartment yet, or had she?

"Alice has been spending all of last week finding a beautiful apartment for you and Edward and getting it ready for you to move in. All that is left to do is packing your things and since you haven't even moved in here properly a lot of your things are still in cartons in the basement."

She was right about that. After all I had been here and there all the time that I never really got settled in this house once my parents moved here.

But still, this was just crazy. One day? As long as they didn't get some kind of superman to do this whole thing, this was never going to happen.

"Alice and Rosalie have volunteered to come and help you pack the things in your room and then show you the apartment. They should be here in about half an hour."

I pushed my plate away, definitely not hungry anymore. I got up and turned to walk out of the room.

"Where are you going Isabella?" my grandmother asked, sounding again like the witch that she was.

"Going to dig my own grave in the backyard." I mumbled and left the room, before I could hear her response.

I marched straight into the kitchen, finding Laurent there, busily cleaning his working space.

"I'm starting to get the feeling that you live in this kitchen." I said when I entered.

He had been with his back to me and turned abruptly when he heard my voice.

"That's what I get paid for, my dear child." he said to me with a roll of his eyes.

"How about you get a new job?" I suggested and sat down on one of the kitchen chairs.

"I actually quite like the payment, but if you have anything in mind I'm all ears."

"You can cook for me and Edward in our new apartment." I said grimly.

That definitely caught Laurent's attention. "You're moving in together?" he asked in surprise.

I fake smiled at him. "Yes, isn't that exciting? These are my last hours in this house."

"What, you're moving today? Why do I only get to hear that now?" Laurent asked sounding a little offended.

"Because I just heard it two minutes ago myself." I replied.

Understanding flashed across Laurent's features. "You know if you want to talk or anything, I'm there for you, right?" he asked in concern.

I looked at him in surprise and confusion. What would I want to talk about? Something else changed in Laurent's expression, but I couldn't place that emotion.

He quickly composed himself. "So do you want me to help you with anything? Packing? Carrying? Anything?" he offered.

I shook my head. "Alice and Rose are supposed to come over and help me." I informed him.

"I always knew this day would come and I shouldn't actually be sad that you're leaving, because you have been here and there all the time, but still I can't believe that you are moving out." Laurent said to me and walked over to hug me gently.

In some ways Laurent was like the older brother I never had. The only reason why I probably didn't go completely insane was him, along with a few other house-workers that have been with us all my life. Well, they used to be with us. Laurent was the only one who moved along with the family. Part of it was probably the fact that he was such a great cook that my mother didn't want to let him go. I always told him that he should quit and open his own restaurant.

He had only rolled his eyes at me and told me to wash the dishes. I smiled at the memory.

"Stop standing there smiling goofily into space. The doorbell just rang and I bet it's for you." Laurent told me, waving a dishtowel in front of my face. I scrunched up my nose and then pulled a grimace at him, before I moved to the entrance hall where Rose and Alice were just being let in by the butler. Sometimes I thought his only job was to open the door.

"Ah, there she is. Our little boozer." Rose exclaimed with a laugh. She looked even more beautiful today then she usually did. I guessed that it had to do with the fact that she was a lot more dressed up. Her hair was in a fancy bun, she wore more make-up and quite a few bracelets were tinkling on her arm. And I also noticed that this was the first time that I saw Alice wear jeans.

"You are very lucky that my shoot ended earlier, it gives us a little more time." Rose told me and was already on her way upstairs.

Suddenly Alice's arms were around me squeezing every bit of air out of my lungs. "I'm sorry that I haven't called you this last week, I was just so incredibly busy." she gushed and let go of me. "It's okay, Alice." I reassured her and patted her on her head. She grimaced at that, but then smiled beautifully at me. We both hurried to follow Rose and a few seconds later we all stood in my room.

"Well, we don't have much work to do in here." Alice said with a simple shrug. I guess that it was a good thing that I never really personalized this room.

"Don't you have any souvenirs from your travels or something?" Rose asked looking around.

"You're asking me now? You saw my room already." I noted.

"Yes, but I wasn't really paying attention."

I sighed. "I do have more than enough souvenirs, but most of my stuff is in the basement. The only things that I really unpacked are my clothes."

Alice dashed inside my closet before I could even finish the sentence.

"Well, well, well. Looks like we have to take a few things out. And maybe go shopping, but overall I would say it's quite alright." Alice mused.

Rose nodded while I just did my best to ignore Alice right then.

"Let's get to work then." Alice shouted enthusiastically and pulled her phone out.

The next three hours were over faster than I would have thought. Alice and Rose spent the most time in my closet sorting things out and packing them up, while I looked to see what they were doing every now and then and then proceeded to pack the rest of my stuff. Of course we got in a fight with Alice every single time I entered the closet.

"You can't throw these away, these jeans are epic. They have history to them." I complained and retrieved the pair of ripped jeans that Alice wanted to throw out.

"No, they are history and have to go." Alice argued and snatched them out of my hands.

"You wanna throw away my college memories?"

"You should have gotten something like a scrapbook."

"These jeans are important to me, you can't just throw them away."

"Yes, I can and I will. You're not in High School anymore."

"College! I wore them in College."

"Whatever, they are not going in the new closet."

"Okay they won't. I'll just frame them and hang 'em on my wall."

Alice had a dangerous look on her face and opened her mouth to reply when Rose interrupted.

"Okay, how about this: We get another box for Bella's memories and it goes in there. That box will be put in a chamber or something nobody ever has to see it again."

Alice and I looked at each other and both agreed with this compromise.

Even if this move was not what I had asked for and had definitely never been on my To-do list, I was just a tiny bit excited to be moving out. Not that moving in with Edward was a good thing, but that tingly feeling in my stomach was there again. The one that I always got when I was preparing to leave for a longer time period. The sweet joy of freedom, even though moving in with Edward was not exactly what I called freedom.

I sighed and sat down on my bed staring at my hands in my lap.

I sat there for heaven knows how long, just letting my thoughts wander.

"Bella are you okay?" I heard Rosalie ask in concern.

She and Alice were just walking out of my closet and came to sit next to me, both of them looking concerned.

"I think so." I answered flatly.

"You know, I was wondering the whole time why you aren't throwing a tantrum over having to live with Edward." Alice mused.

"I don't feel like it."

Rose patted my shoulder in some kind of comforting way.

"You know, you and Edward in one apartment is going to be disastrous." Alice told me with a sigh.

"Wow, thanks Alice. I really needed that now."

Alice just continued, ignoring me. "But I really think that the two of you might pull it off…eventually."

"Is this some kind of pep talk?" I raised my eyebrows at Alice.

"No, this is me telling you that I have faith in you. I trust that you can make this very weird relationship work and make both families somewhat happy. I know that they are asking a lot from you, but sometimes we have to get through difficult phases before we can enjoy happiness."

"Alice, I'm afraid that your pep talk is very cheesy and doesn't motivate me at all."

Alice moved quickly to kneel in front of me. She looked me straight in the eye.

"Bella, you and Edward belong together and you two better make this relationship work if you don't want me chasing after your sorry asses for the rest of your life."

"What makes you think we are perfect for each other? Opposites don't always attract you know." I told her a little taken aback by her words.

"Trust me, I just know," she said with a smirk and then pulled out her phone again and by the sounds of it she was talking to the movers.

"Listen Bella, I think that Alice is just trying to tell you that, maybe all those struggles will be worth it in the end. Even if you and Edward are not a happy couple in the end." Rose told me quietly while Alice was bossing someone around on the phone.

"How so? I never really wanted a bunch of kids and to live the life of a trophy wife." I told her with a sigh.

"Then don't do it. You see, your family might make you feel like you have absolutely no choice, but you do. We both know that walking away from this now will probably lead to you being thrown out of your own family, but if you at least make it through this whole wedding thing, you can do whatever you want. You are an adult and you can do whatever you want. Your parents wanted you to marry Edward and you can do that, but they can't force you to live a life that you don't want. You can go and do whatever you want and if they don't like it, just remind them that you already did what they asked for." Rose said with a grin.

I opened my mouth to reply something, but Rosalie cut me off.

"You know the real problem is not that you have to marry Edward, it's that you depend too much on your family."

With these words she let me sit there and went to go to the bathroom. I looked after her, deep in thought. Alice and Rose's words had not really been the ones I wanted to hear, but for some reason I felt like I shouldn't ignore what they had said. I sighed and pushed those thoughts aside for later. Who knows, maybe Edward was in reality the true love that I was waiting for my whole life. I doubted it, but hey…positive thoughts.

Soon a troop of muscular guys in overalls stepped into the house, making my grandmother grimace in distaste and I thought I saw my mother swoon. I suppressed a giggle at that. Alice was already giving out instruction while Rose and I waited for her.

After various minutes of watching Alice telling the guys exactly what they should bring where, we were ready to go.

"So are you going to show me my new home now?" I asked form the backseat of Rose's BMW.

"Not yet, the workers are still busy there. We'll have to be there to monitor the movers though, I'm not sure if they listened to me." Alice replied.

"And where are we going now?"

"Well, first things first. I think I have the perfect wedding theme now." Alice gushed in excitement.

I just stared and gestured for her to continue.

"Under the sea." she said dramatically and then waited for my reaction.

I spoke slowly, "Under the sea? Do you want a 'Little Mermaid' wedding?"

"No, I just meant like water. The colours are going to be blue and white, you know."

I thought about it. Blue and white…I could work with that.

"Only if you manage to pull off something incredibly cool." I told her.

"Like a shark at your wedding?" Alice asked in excitement.

"Something like that."

The squeal that followed was so painful that Rose almost drove us of the road.

Alice started rushing the words, "I love you, Bella. Very very much. I'm so happy that you agreed, because most of my other ideas would probably not really work for you. I really thought hard about this and I swear it's going to be the best wedding ever."

"Breathe Alice." Rose said calmly and patted Alice's knee with one hand.

"Right." Alice started taking deep breaths and calmed herself down.

"Do I get an answer to my earlier question now?" I asked after Alice regained a normal breathing pace.

"We're going to see James and then the decorators and I think we should stop by my workshop too. After that we should buy some drinks and stuff, because we're having a house warming tonight."

"Sounds wonderful."

"It is. The theme inspired me for your wedding dress. It's going to be so dreamy."

"When Alice is staring off into space like that she definitely has a good idea. Her ideas are so great that even you will enjoy getting married." Rose informed me with a giggle.

I didn't say anything to that and just leaned back, staying quiet for the rest of the drive. The main reason for that was actually that Alice's phone kept ringing and she had to sort out whatever issues the people had. She was not only monitoring the move but also her workshop. I admired her for managing all those things so well. Eventually we halted in front of James' shop and got out of the car. James seemed to have been waiting for us, because he immediately stepped out and greeted us.

"Alice, Rose and Bella. It is so wonderful to see all of you. My day has just been brightened by your beauty." he sang and hugged each of us pecking us on both cheeks.

"Judging by the looks on Alice's face, I would say you're not here for fun." he stated waving his hand at Alice.

She replied instantly, "All business, baby."

James led us inside and Alice got right into it, explaining her 'fabulous' idea.

"It's brilliant. I knew there was a reason why I always recommend you to my costumers." James said with a brilliant smile, while he twirled a strand of his hair.

"I know. I'm awesome, right?" Alice sighed happily.

"Absolutely and I'm already thinking blue hydrangeas."

"I hoped you'd say that."

"Mixed with blue roses."

"Of course"

"Blue Calla lilies and blue orchids."

"James, if I weren't married already and you weren't gay, I would so marry you right now." Alice said with a happy smile.

"I know, I know. Everybody wants me."

Rose and I mostly just watched Alice and James trying to get a bouquet together. Of course they couldn't do so without disagreeing.

"You know what? I can't work like this. All of you out and come back tomorrow or something." James said finally, when Alice got too much on his nerves

"You're throwing us out?" Alice asked him.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing."

"You're lucky that we have to go to the workshop anyway, otherwise you would have been forced to look for a new lunch partner." Alice said sticking her nose in the air and dragging me and Rose along.

We only had to walk down the street to get to Alice's workshop and different than last time it was actually kinda busy in there.

"Alice!" a voice immediately exclaimed when we stepped through the door.

A small brunette quickly shuffled over to us. She had her hair in a messy bun and wore a simple black dress that managed to look casual and professional at the same time.

"I'm so glad that you are here," she wheezed out when she reached us. It seemed like this girl was seriously stressed.

"What's wrong Angela?" asked Alice.

"You remember that one costumer last year, that horrible creature of a human being?"

"Um, there were quite a few."

"The one who demanded that you do her dress, but you handed her over to Vanessa."

"Ah that one. What about her?"

"She's been calling non-stop and wants you to design a pageant dress for her."

"But she knows that we only do wedding dresses, right?"

"That's what I told her, but she seems to be under the impression that we design dresses in general and she's constantly calling. She's kinda blocking the line and unfortunately made me miss the call of the fabric supplier and he is only going to be in town today, so you have to call him since you are the only one with his number."

"Okay I will do that right away." Alice said with a nod and then looked at a girl, who was bend over a desk at the far side of the room. "Nessie, you should take care of that problem. That horrible woman was your costumer."

"But she's awful, even Jean hates her and Jean loves everyone." Nessie complained, blowing a strand of her red hair out of her face.

As if on cue a guy appeared beside me and snaked his hands around my waist.

"I don't love everyone, just the pretty people." he purred and then smiled at me. "I'm Jean."

"Nice to meet you, Jean." I said slowly a little confused as to why he was suddenly holding me so intimately. "I'm Bella."

"Oh, you're that hot piece of ass of who we have the naked pictures of upstairs?" he looked at me in excitement.

"Naked pictures?" Rose asked already laughing hard. "I always knew that it would get interesting with you around, but I never dreamed of this."

I sighed and didn't bother to explain anything to Rose. Neither did Alice, but that was probably because she was already on the phone with the fabric supplier.

"So since you are our next bride, how about you go and stand there, you're rocking curves had me inspired the first second I laid eyes on you." Jean whispered in my ear, causing me to shudder involuntarily. He chuckled at that, obviously aware of the effect he had on me. Or maybe people in general.

Another guy walked past us, his hands full with paper rolls. "Don't mind Jean, sweetie. He likes to get his hands on everything that walks on two legs. Normally he does that to Rose." he informed me with a boyish grin. He had dark hair, which he had gelled into little spikes and wore an earring with a little blue stone in it, that matched his eyes.

Jean was still cuddling me, but managed to manoeuvre me over to one of the platforms and then finally let go of me. Rose came to my side. "Personally I think he has a thing for brunettes, he always forgets about me when a brunette is nearby."

I looked after Jean, who was running all over the place clearly looking for something.

"Blondie whatever you are doing, stop it. I already have an idea for Bella's dress." Alice called, when she saw Jean dashing around. Jean froze in his movements.

"Please tell me you have an idea for a colour, because I had this fabulous idea but no colour to go with it." Jean whined, not really acknowledging Alice's words.

"Since when is there any colour in wedding dresses?" I asked.

"Since the day brides weren't as innocent as the white colour of their dresses." Jean told me with a mischievous smile. "Deep down we are all little whores."

I coughed at his words not sure if I was really hiding a laugh.

"You're the only whore in here, Jean." a voice spoke that I hadn't heard yet. A woman with stunningly exotic looks walked down the stairs.

"Oh please Zafrina, you're just jealous that I got a lot more guys wanting to bang me than you." Jean retorted. Zafrina just rolled her eyes at him, before her eyes caught sight of me and she grinned.

"Our naked model!" she exclaimed happily. "You are even prettier in person. I was already thinking of—"

"No. I already have an idea." Alice threw in through gritted teeth.

"You know Alice, I also already thought of something..." Angela piped in from behind a mannequin.

"But you don't even know the theme yet:" Alice said sounding like an angry child.

"Well, I was thinking something gentle and soft. It has to flow around her body and hug all the right places." the spikey haired guy said.

"Ugh, Danny stop stealing my ideas." Alice complained.

"How about we just collect all of our ideas and then try to make it work?" Nessie suggested.

"No way, my dress is so much better without all of you wanting to change it. I'm the boss, so I get to decide."

"With all due respect Mrs Whitlock," Jean said mockingly, "but I really think that my ideas would definitely improve whatever dress you were thinking off."

"Jean you always do too much, she'll probably look like a circus freak after you are done." Zafrina threw in.

"And you will make some skimpy dress that might as well be passed off as a bathing suit, so don't you dare saying anything." Jean retorted. It only took all six of them minutes to start shouting at each other, each of them claiming to have the best ideas.

I got down from the platform and sat down next to Rose.

"I never saw them disagree. You really bring out the strangest reactions in people." Rose remarked.

"I think it's a curse." I sighed in response.

"Well at least you know that six people really do care about your wedding dress. I wish they would have gone all crazy over mine."

"Okay, we should settle this a little more civilized." the voice of Angela rang out.

"Beat each other up with baseball bats?" Nessie asked.

"No, I was thinking something like a competition." Angela's eyes gleamed dangerously at the word.

"What does the winner get?" Danny asked.

"Apart from being mentioned as the dress designer?"

"Never mind."

"Okay, sounds fair, but we need to make up rules." Alice said. "No sabotaging," she looked at Jean, "no stealing. The dresses should be done in six weeks, so we have enough time for the shoot and you either make or find a tuxedo that goes along with it. Bella is going to be the judge in the end. By the way, the wedding theme is 'Under the sea'."

"Mermaids?" Danny asked in confusion.

"No, water, ocean, sea, beach or whatever. Think Atlantis. Maybe I should call the theme Atlantis instead."

"Alright, I'm in, but I need your phone number Bella." Jean spoke up and strutted over to where Rose and I said, holding out his hands. I handed him my phone and a few seconds later the other four designers surrounded him, all of them saving my number in their phones. Jean handed it back to me with a grin and then dashed upstairs.

"Alright, I guess we're done here for now." Alice said slowly and then motioned for me and Rose to follow her.

"You're seriously having a competition for designing my wedding dress? That is definitely the strangest thing ever." I laughed along with Rose when we were back in the car.

"It'll be worth it, no matter who wins, the other dresses will be amazing as well and I'm already making big plans here. Bella your wedding is some kind of blessing for me." Alice said dreamily and looked out of the window.

Well, I'm glad that you are enjoying it…

"So now we're going to see the decorators?" Rose asked.

Alice nodded and got back on her phone. It was probably going to be attached to her ear soon.

By the sound of it the workers in the apartment had messed up and Emmett, who was apparently supposed to watch things, was now getting an earful from Alice.

Poor bastard.

The visit at the decorators was quite similar to the one at James'. After some meeting and greeting, Alice explained her idea once more and let Shawna, the person in charge, know exactly what she wanted. I was not really listening and just roamed around the place along with Rose, looking at some of their displays. An hour later Alice called that_ we_ should get our move on and was now in a big hurry to leave.

"Just drive back to the apartment, Rose." Alice said, sounding tired.

"I thought you wanted to go and buy—"

"Emmett can do that. We have to watch those incompetent people move everything to the right place and unpack. I really want everything done tonight, so that I can sleep better."

"Alright, your wish is my command."

Twenty minutes later we came to halt in front of a giant apartment building. I didn't even know why I was surprised that it had kind of a hotel-like atmosphere, since it practically yelled expensive.

"Welcome to the Baxton building, your future home. You own the fourth floor." Alice told me happily.

I gaped at her. "The entire fourth floor?" I asked her.

Alice nodded eagerly. I may not like this whole high society thing, but come on, luxury rocks and we all know it.

The entrance was a revolving door, that was kind of unhinged or something now, allowing various guys with boxes furniture and so on to move in and out.

"I thought they'd be done by now." Rose mused.

"They are close to done, I think." Alice replied and then led the way inside. The entrance hall looked very comfortable. It was decorated in a simple manner and had a few couches standing on the left side. On the right side was the receptionist desk and the person behind it seemed to be a little nervous, because of all the men walking in and out, not looking like they cared if they knocked over a vase.

"Oh Mrs Whitlock," the tiny man behind the desk sighed in relief, "I really hope these people are done soon, they are really really making me nervous. They already managed to get stuck in the elevator once and that got me complaints from the seventh floor, because they couldn't get out of their apartment."

"Don't worry about that, Micah. I'm back and in charge and I'll make sure that these people disappear soon." Alice reassured him. He smiled gratefully at her.

Alice turned to me. "In case you haven't noticed, there is a Starbucks in the building." Alice pointed to what I had assumed was a glass wall beside the couches earlier, only to realize that there was a set of doors that led in fact straight into a Starbucks shop.

"It's a special treat for the people who live in here you can call in and order so you don't have to fight through that morning madness."

I folded my hands quickly and looked up at the sky.

"Are you praying?" Rose asked.

"No, I'm thanking God for Starbucks." I told her and sent a quick thank you in the sky.

"Hmm...I suppose it's not a half bad idea."

"Yes, yes. Thank you God for Starbucks." Alice said impatiently.

"Amen." Rose and I chorused.

"Right. So I really want you to know that I went through hell to get this apartment for you and Edward. This is one of the most wanted places in town and I had to work every ounce of my magic to make this happen, so you better start kissing my ass now." Alice said to me.

"First I want to see what I have to kiss your ass for."

Alice nodded with a grin and led the way to the elevators. While we waited she started her lecture.

"Okay, so this is your key." she held up something that looked like a key pendant. She pointed at a metallic ship on it. "It's electronic."

Right then the lift opened and we stepped in. I reached out to press four but Alice's hand stopped me.

"This lift works a little differently. These are the doorbells. You use your key to get up there. You just put it here and then the thing will know which floor to go to so you will land right in your apartment."

Alice held the little metal piece in front of a round light next to the buttons that had the same shape as the chip.

"How exactly do my visitors get in?" I asked.

"They ring the bell and you just have to press a little button to let them up.", Rose sang.

"Okay and if the elevator breaks down or something?"

"Then you take the stairs. You also have a normal entrance, you just have to climb up four stories for that." Alice told me.

The doors in front of us opened and we stepped into a room that I couldn't really identify at first. It was some kind of a mixture between an entrance and living room. The marble floor was so polished that I could see a vague reflection of myself there. Two workers passed us while I admired the fireplace and the two arm chairs standing there.

"So this is your shoe closet and that is the other entrance." Alice explained, pointing at two doors to our left. "Over there," she pulled me along, "we have the living room." she pointed at a wide door frame that had no door in it. I could see the living room and was already awed by the size of that couch. I think I never saw a cooler couch in my whole life.

Alice didn't let me go into the living room like I wanted to, instead she forced me to pay attention to the door on the right side of the living room entrance. "This is the Master suite." Alice whispered as if it was holy ground that we were about to step on. I started laughing when I saw what was in front of us. The room was still a chaos in the making. Three guys were currently trying to make a bed out of the pile of wood and other stuff in front of them. One of them was Emmett.

"Oh Bella, how is my favourite alcoholic?" he greeted enthusiastically while I was still laughing at the fact that the moment that Alice had obviously tried to make special had been ruined by this.

"She's recovering." Rose informed her husband and went over to him to place a small kiss on his mouth.

"Sad to hear, I quite enjoyed your drunken performance, even though Mum kinda threw a fit."

I stopped laughing and tried to picture a furious Esme.

"She's still upset over the fact that—"

"That I got shitfaced at her charity event." I finished for him with a sigh. Imagining an angry Esme made me feel kinda bad about the whole thing. I didn't really know her, but somehow I thought that her being angry wasn't something that happened often.

"—that there was Paparazzi in there. They are not supposed to get in."; Emmett continued, ignoring my comment.

"Oh."

"Yes, yes, this is all very great, but I expected you people to be done with the Master bedroom already. You do realize that they have to sleep tonight right?" Alice threw in, interrupting the conversation.

"We kind of finished the guest room first. You can look at the bathroom though." Emmett told his sister shrinking back a little when he saw her glare at him.

"The guest room? Really, I shouldn't have let you be in charge."

I rolled my eyes at the following screeching and wandered off to inspect the apartment on my own. Even with everyone still working on all edges and corners I could already tell that this was going to be beautiful. Not exactly my style, but I was content with it. Especially with the kitchen. It was kind of like a circle with the counter in the middle and didn't look as freaky as the one kitchen Edward had liked so much. I could see that Alice had done her best in making this bearable for both me and Edward. On the first look it would seem that she had thought more of Edward than of me, but things like the TV area and the kitchen made me more than excited to live here.

"Oh there she is." Alice called to someone as she walked into the kitchen. "Do you like it?"

"Surprisingly; yeah. Especially the couch."

Alice giggled. "I knew you would love that one."

"So this is it, huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"Edward's and my apartment." It really sounded strange to say that.

"Yes, it is. I really hope that you guys are making this work."

"It's easy for you to say, you married the guy you love."

"Yes, but I did have to deal with a few similar situations. It's not like I just met Jasper somewhere. You met my great-aunt, she is a lot like your grandma and well...she and her bookclub friends just always wanted me to meet one bachelor after another and Jasper happened to be one of them. I turned every single one down even Jasper, because in my opinion he was too quiet. I met him again though, when I was in desperate need for a photographer. We worked together and got closer and I kind of realized that he was like my personal chill pill or something. I know that I tend to get overly excited or angry or whatever, but with Jasper near I always have a certain amount of calmness around me. So when I started dating Jasper, my aunt and grandfather made sure that we got married quickly kind of pushing us. So I also ended up in my first own apartment with Jasper not really knowing how to deal with that, but I guess I was at an advantage because we could actually stand each other."

"Could? I think we're still getting along pretty well." Jasper's deep voice interrupted as he stepped into the kitchen.

Alice turned around to smile at him, while she rolled her eyes.

Jasper chuckled. "So Bella, I just saw your apartment and I had this annoying voice beside me telling me all about it. I thought you might wanna know that this apartment has marble floors and a plan with a wood floor and under floor heating as well as other very attractive features. With a giant flat screen in the living room and centralized Air Conditioning."

"Lauren is here?" Alice asked, before I could say anything to Jasper.

"She sure is."

"Dammit, I'm gonna get rid of her." Alice stalked out of the kitchen.

"Such a stressed little person." I said smiling at Alice as she walked out of the room.

"Yes, but stress makes her work a lot better. I think she enjoys it... It gives her an excuse to yell at people." Jasper said with a chuckle.

"She'd do it anyway."

"True."

"Hey you know what? We could make ourselves a little useful around here, could we not?"

"I don't really think so, Alice has people hired for everything that needs to be done." Jasper told me with a slight shrug.

I sighed. As if on cue two little woman came into the kitchen with a carton and started putting things away. Jasper and I shuffled out of the kitchen quickly, not wanting to be in the way.

"Jasper," Rose called, "Alice wants you and Emmett to get some food and enough booze to make her forget about the pain in her feet."

"Sure, how long shall we take?"

Rose looked around. Someone of the cleaning crew was currently scrubbing the dining table.

"About two hours, no need to hurry. I will try to keep the little monster in check."

"What did Emmett do?" Jasper asked amused. Apparently Rose words had let him to the conclusion that Emmett did something wrong.

"He put the wrong bed in the guest room." Rose answered.

"I'm already gone." Jasper promised and moved quickly passed Rose.

"And what do we do now?" I asked Rose.

"Trust me, we'll get more than enough to do:"

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Two and a half hours later the three of us were slouched on the couch.

"I can't believe that ordering people around can be so tiring." I whispered.

"That's because you usually don't have help those idiots to get things right. I think we build that bed on our own." Rose replied.

"And separated Bella's and Edward's stuff." Alice added.

"Ah yes we did all of that, didn't we?" I questioned weakly.

"We also decorated this damn place." Rose said.

"Where are the guys, I'm starving." Alice whined.

"Did somebody say they missed us?" Emmett's voice and Jasper walked in with Edward trailing behind them. For some reason this was effecting me. Whether it was positive or not, I didn't know, but I suddenly felt a little less tired.

"Hey Eddie-boy," Alice greeted her brother weakly. "Do you like the place?"

Edward's eyes rested on me for a moment not disapproving this time, but calculating.

"Yes, I do. I never thought that it was possible that there was ever a free space at the Baxton."

"There isn't." Rose told him wisely and place the food that Emmett and Jasper had brought on the little glass table. Chinese takeout. I almost let out a moan when the smell entered my senses.

Edward was looking at Rose in confusion. "What? You and Bella moved in or not?"

The evening was passed surprisingly well. We all sat on the couch, ate and watched a movie. It was some senseless action movie with a lot of explosions and fight scenes. I was pretty sure that Emmett chose the movie.

Between wine, food and the movie we managed to talk a little, but all of us were tired so nothing worth mentioning was actually said. Edward and I sat on opposite ends of the couch, not really paying much attention to the other. It wasn't that I wanted to ignore him, I just felt more comfortable when I didn't have to interact with him directly.

"Okay kiddo's, it has been lovely, but I really need my beauty sleep now." Rose eventually said. Alice agreed by letting out a yawn.

"Alright, party's over. Too bad we didn't get Bella drunk, might have been funny." Emmett said with a booming laugh.

"Just shut up, Em." Jasper told him with a roll of his eyes. We all walked to the lift/ door and said our goodbyes. I was oddly aware of the fact that I was going to be all alone in here with Edward in just a few seconds. The four of them already stepped into the elevator and Alice turned to me once more.

"Don't make any plans for tomorrow, we're going shopping", she told me.

"I don't want to go shopping."

"Oh trust me, you will like it."

"I doubt it."

"Do you want to bet?" Alice asked smugly. In the corner of my eye I could see Edward tilt his head to the side to regard his sister with caution.

"No, I'll pass." I said slowly, hoping that I was not misinterpreting Edward's expression.

"Too bad. Alright, we'll see you tomorrow. Try not to break anything."

And with that said she joined the others and soon all of them vanished behind the closed doors.

I stood there for a few moments, unmoving. Edward didn't move either. This was just so fucking awkward.

I yawned involuntarily getting both of us out of our daze.

"I guess we should get to sleep." Edward said slowly in a flat voice.

I answered with a shrug, "I guess."

Edward cleared his throat awkwardly and quickly strode into the bed room. _Oh shit! I was not ready to sleep in one bed with him yet…_A few seconds later Edward walked back out, carrying one of the unpacked boxes.

"You can have the bed room, I'll be in the guest room." he told me as he passed me and then vanished inside said room. He closed the door behind him, leaving me there to stare at the door.

I really shouldn't be surprised about this, should I? It wasn't that Edward was rude or anything he was just…distant. Probably the same way I was with him. I slowly walked into the bed room.

Even if Edward was really getting on my nerves and I knew that I was probably getting on his, I thought about the possibility of him not being such a bad person.

Maybe he was kind of likable and just didn't show it. I knew for sure that I was constantly a bitch to him.

_I wonder if he is just as nervous as I am._ I had changed out of my clothes and crawled unto the hugged bed, sighing contently before my thoughts went back to Edward once more.

Living with Edward. Maybe I should start writing a diary, because this was surely going to be interesting.

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><p><strong><em><span>AN:_ I actually planned on having Edward present a little earlier and I never really planed that wedding dress competition...oh well, I got caried away. Well, as I have mentioned earlier I get dsitracted easily and instead of listening to annoying poptart cats, I got into FictionPress. It's almost as addiction as FF and of course being me, I started typing again. But I'm trying to stay on hold finish one thing first before I start the next :D Sooo...back to the topic I should be tlaking about- the chapter. Yeah, I really don't have much to say about that. I'm thinking about letting Bella actually write a diary and I also think that writing this story is pretty exhausting -.- I should think my plost through a little better**

**So yeah, I'm done rambling and I don't have a cool question. In case you wnat to know what the answer to the last one was...it's the heart.**

**Now all that is left to say is thank you to my amazing beta justareaderfan and thanks to everyone, who puts up with this story and me :D**


	5. Chapter 5

**_A/N:_ You are officially allowed to hate me! I'm so sorry for the major delay, you can't even imagine how sorry I am. My life just decided to get stressing and hectic and I was just not able to get to typing -.- it would be easier if my laptop hadn't died a few months ago. I actually really started typing just about two weeks ago and I was being interrupted all the time. Basically I'm just apologizing here and I really hope you guys haven't given up on me or anything. Life is starting to settle down and a lovely Laptop is waiting to be in my possesion :D**

**Alright apart from this I don't have much to say, although I do wanna thank all of you for reviewing, favoriting etc... I guess now that I am a little less stressed I will take my time again to answer all of your lovely reviews, because I really do love them, but I don't get to answer them really...**

**So yeah that's all for now, you just go and have fun reading ;)**

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><p>I woke up when I heard my phone ringing. I groaned and started to search around, still half asleep. When I finally held the annoying little device in my hand, I just pressed what I assumed to be the right button and held it to my ear.<p>

"'lo?" I slurred groggily. I hadn't even managed to open my eyes yet, so it took me a full minute to realize that there was no response on the other end.

I yawned once, before I used all of my strength to lift my heavy eyelids. I looked at the display only to realize that my phone was off.

I vaguely remembered turning it off last night so Alice couldn't ring me out of bed.

I sat up slowly and looked around the empty room, trying to figure out what had woken me up. My brain was definitely not ready for any type of thinking, because I nearly shrieked when I heard a male voice outside my bedroom door.

"I'll try to be there, okay?" I heard the voice say. By the sound of it the person was talking on the phone.

_That voice…I've heard it somewhere before…_

That was when it finally clicked in my head and I slumped back in my pillows. I glanced at the clock on my bedside table for a second and willed myself to keep sleeping.

There was just no way that I would be awake at six o'clock.

Outside I still heard the low murmur of Edward's voice. By the sound of it he was pacing around in the corridor.

"No, I'm not. I just don't think that it would be an advisable thing to do," Edward said. It sounded like he was having a discussion with someone. I tried to listen more intently, but Edward must have moved again, because I only heard the tenor of his voice but not the words.

Just when I was about to give up and resume concentrating on sleeping, he was in my hearing range again.

"Alice, I really don't think that she would react all too well if I woke her up for this kind of nonsense." Edward sounded a little annoyed. This time I didn't need that much time to get what was going on. Alice was persuading her brother to kick me out of bed. I should have known that switching my phone off wouldn't save me. But then again I could hardly imagine Edward coming in here and waking me up – it would most likely only lead to a catastrophe.

Edward was still standing in front of my room and for a moment I thought he was actually going to come in, but I heard how he moved away again.

I sighed quietly and then slowly got up. I trotted into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. I made enough noise for Edward to know that I was up and I guessed that Alice let him be now that I was awake.

I was too lazy to get dressed properly so I just decided that breakfast was a good idea.

I carefully opened the bedroom door, making sure that Edward was really not standing right outside. Not that I was scared to run into him or anything, I just feared that it might happen.

_Why? It's not like he's gonna bite you or anything…_

Psh, don't be too sure of that. Who knows what kind of crazy person he really is.

_Says the one that's answering to voices in her head._

That was a valid point, but I never really claimed to be normal, did I? I would only get worried if the voice in my head starts to speak French.

Edward was nowhere to be seen or heard so I decided it would be safe for me to make my way into the kitchen.

Of course it was still early in the morning and even though my thoughts were a lot more coherent now it didn't mean that I was actually using my brain. If I had, I would have considered the possibility of Edward being in the kitchen.

So here I was, in my favourite sleeping shorts and a simple white tank top, shuffling into the kitchen and barely paying attention to where I was going.

That, of course, was not the wisest thing to do especially not in a kitchen.

It went really fast and all I could remember was colliding with something solid, a startled cry and a sharp pain in my right wrist before I landed with my butt on the floor.

That was definitely going to leave a bruise.

"Isabella?" I heard a voice exclaim. I looked up only to see Edward staring down at me in bewilderment. Then his eyes quickly darted to my aching wrist and he swiftly put down the knife he was holding to help me get up.

Why he had been holding a knife in his hand was beyond me.

_You are in a kitchen..._

Right, I had almost forgotten about that. Well, I guess I may not be as intelligent as I thought I was. Only then I noticed that I was feeling fairly dizzy, which explained why I did not protest when Edward pulled me into the living room and sat me down on the couch.

"Are you okay, Isabella?" I heard him ask, his voice sounding concerned.

I made a face and shook my head. "I smell blood," I informed him and leaned back on the couch, looking up at him.

Edward's expression was unreadable to me. It seemed like he had hundreds of things going through his mind at once.

"Stay here and don't move," he instructed sternly and then walked out of the room. Meanwhile I concentrated on breathing through my mouth and locked every muscle in my body to prevent me from looking down at my bleeding wrist.

I had never been able to see blood, it made me sick, especially when it was my own, yet I could never resist looking at my injuries which was really idiotic considering that I already started to feel dizzy if I only smelled blood.

Thankfully Edward was back just a minute later, because I wasn't sure how long I would have managed to stay unmoving. With a few fluid motions he knelt down in front of me, opened a first aid kit next to me on the couch and took my right hand in his.

By now the burn in my wrist had become more bearable and easier to ignore, which made me wonder just how deep Edward had cut me. It couldn't be that deep if he managed to stay that calm.

I looked at the head with the bronze-coloured hair on it. Like always his hair was combed down neatly, which kind of reminded me of his father. Just as I looked at him, Edward's head jerked up and he gazed intently at me. His eyes were really by far the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. Alright, maybe not exactly, seeing that his mother had the same startling eye colour, but somehow his eyes seemed to be unique. I really didn't know how to describe it, but there was something in his gaze that made it impossible for me to look away.

"Isabella, do you hear me?" I heard his musical voice ask. He no longer sounded concerned but downright worried, frantic even.

I furrowed my brows, wondering what had gotten him this worked up.

He ran a hand through his nicely combed hair, before he slowly got up. "Guess that means that I'll have to take you the hospital," he murmured, probably talking more to himself than me.

"What? No," I instantly protested and jerked my arm back. I noticed that his hair was a little messier, most likely from running his hand through it.

Edward looked a little startled at my little outburst, but dismissed it quickly. "Can you feel all of your fingers?" he asked me.

I briefly wiggled each finger on my right hand and then nodded to answer his question.

I thought I saw him exhale in relief before he knelt down before me again. I had to physically force myself not to look down while Edward seemed to be cleaning the wound or something. He was so gentle with his hands that I barely felt his touch.

I really wanted to look at that cut, but I really didn't want to faint in front of Edward, so instead I just looked at him. He was really concentrating as if this was a major arm surgery instead of just a simple cut. I was still very impressed by his gentle touch, when suddenly there was a horrible sting that changed my mind quickly.

"What the—" I exclaimed hastily and jerked my arm away from him, clutching it to my chest.

Of course this also made me look at my cut for the first time. There hadn't been any blood when I first looked at it, but when I tilted my hand back to see how deep the cut was, it was filling with blood again. Naturally I had forgotten to breathe through my mouth so I was not only assaulted with the head spinning sight of my blood but I also had to endure the disgusting metallic smell that accompanied it.

"Isabella, you will rip the cut if you do things like that," Edward snapped at me and reached out to grab my hand again. Despite the fact that the edges of my vision started to become blurry, I was quickly on my feet and backed away from him.

"No way will I let you touch me again. What the fuck did you just do? That shit hurt like a mother—"

"Just come back here and let me continue my work," Edward interrupted me with a sigh. He ran his hand through his hair again, making it stick up a little more.

"No," I persisted, sounding like a petulant child.

"Come on, Isabella. I won't hurt you," Edward said, suddenly reassuring sounding as if he was indeed talking to a little kid.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Now that right there was a lie. You just hurt me. Twice," I informed him.

Something in Edward's expression changed when he looked at me. He took a deep breath before he said, "I'm very sorry for injuring you, but there is no reason for you to be so difficult when I was only disinfecting your wound."

"Difficult?" I nearly screamed, "I'm not being difficult. I'm just not willing to endure any more pain." I took a deep breath as well, but realized a second later that that was a mistake, seeing that I was still not immune to the smell of blood.

"Yes, you are being difficult and it is quite ridiculous as well. If you don't want to go to the hospital, you should let me treat your injury instead of throwing a temper tantrum."

I heard what he was saying, but I was currently concentrating on breathing through my mouth again and not fainting. I leaned against the wall behind me and took deep breaths.

"Isabella, are you okay?" I heard Edward ask, sounding just as frantic as he did earlier.

"Fine," I mumbled weakly, "I just hate the smell of blood."

Of all the things that a girl could faint over I had definitely chosen one of the more idiotic ones. Whatever Edward said next never really reached my ears, because the next thing that entered my consciousness was the blackness that dragged me down.

Only the sound of Edward's beautiful voice was what I could register, before everything around me was silent, dark and empty.

"Bella, wake up. You've got some explaining to do," someone demanded impatiently.

I only groaned in response and turned around, covering my head with a pillow in the process.

_Just let me sleep and never wake up again._

"Bella, wake up!" the already high pitched voice was now starting reach dangerous notes. Dogs might take this as an open invitation.

"Go away, I'm sleeping," I mumbled sleepily.

"Ugh, first Edward lets me in, tells me that you've been unconscious for a while and then leaves and now you are here dreaming about heaven knows what and not telling me anything," the voice complained, "You people are unbelievable."

It didn't take a genius to figure out that it was Alice who was screeching and whining here, but that didn't motivate me to get up at all. In fact I really wished to be unconscious right then. Wait…unconscious?

"I was unconscious?" I shrieked as I sat up abruptly, "When the hell did that happen?"

I looked around the bedroom and noticed that Alice was nowhere to be seen. Although judging by the open closet door, I had a pretty good guess where she might be.

"You're asking me?" Alice replied. By the sounds of it she was somewhere in the depths of that closet.

"Obviously, who else is here to ask?"

Alice came out of the closet holding a complete outfit in her hands. "Well since Edward didn't tell me anything and just left, I would say there is only you."

I stared at the clothes Alice had picked out for me instead of saying anything.

"What happened to your arm?" Alice then suddenly asked, looking pointedly at my right arm.

I followed her gaze and saw that my wrist was bandaged. That was when I remembered the previous events. So I did pass out on Edward after all. How embarrassing.

"Isabella Swan, you better start telling me something or I will make sure to call your grandmother."

I rolled my eyes at the worked up little person in front of my bed. So tiny and yet so evil.

"It's nothing really. Edward just cut me there with a knife and I—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, "Alice interrupted and sank down on my bed beside me. "Did you just say Edward cut you with a _knife_?"

"Uhm… yes, but—"

"Oh my god! I can't believe he did that! And here I thought I knew my brother!" Alice was shrieking again. If she continued to talk in these volumes my eardrums might not be working for a long amount of time. Either that or she would lose her voice, which would not be all that bad…

I watched helplessly as Alice pulled out her phone and hit speed dial. I tried to explain to her that it had just been an accident, but Alice was a pro in interrupting people before they even took a breath.

"Rose! We've got a major emergency here and you better be moving your ass to Bella's apartment right now," she yelled into the phone.

Poor Rose. Her hearing organ might be damaged now as well.

She was saying something to Alice on the phone to which Alice pulled a grimace before she spoke, "That doesn't matter right now. Just try to get something sorted out; it's a family emergency after all."

I could only hear the buzz of Rose's voice, before she seemed to have hung up and Alice returned her attention to me.

"And here I thought you guys would manage it." She sighed and looked at me with sad eyes.

"I'm so sorry Bella. I had no idea that Edward could be like this. I mean, sure everyone has a dark side, but this just doesn't seem like Edward. Of course that is no excuse for what he did, I just hope that you don't hate all of us for leaving you alone with him," Alice was not even taking a breath while talking, but really seemed sincere in her apology.

Only problem was that she had nothing to apologize for.

"You have absolutely nothing to apologize for, Alice," I said, voicing my thoughts.

"Yes, yes, I know…it's just… well, I kinda feel like I have to, seeing that he is my brother and everything…" She let her voice trail off and looked even sadder now than before.

I should set this right, before Edward went to jail for domestic abuse, even if it would make my drunken performance less of a scandal.

"Alice, I've been trying to tell you the whole time that this was only an accident," I explained to her, waving my arm in front of her face.

"An accident?"

"Yes," I bobbed my head up and down, "It's kinda stupid, really. I was still half asleep when I walked into the kitchen and I kinda walked into Edward, literally, so he accidently cut me."

"How the hell did he do that?" Alice asked incredulously.

I shrugged. "I have no idea, I was busy falling and breaking my ass in the process."

"So Edward didn't attack you with a knife?" Alice asked cautiously.

"I didn't even think that it would be a possibility. Edward of all people?" I snorted at the thought.

Alice let out a sigh of relief. "Well then, I guess there is no family emergency."

She pulled her phone out once more.

"Hey Rose," she said in a much more bearable voice. "Listen, about that emergency… yeah, it's nothing really. Turns out that Edward didn't attack Bella with a knife, they only collided in the kitchen."

The buzz of Rose's voice was a lot louder now. It seemed like she was freaking out on the other end.

"Chill Rose, nobody has been attacked. Bella is fine and you don't need to fly over. Just stay were you are, do what you have to do and relax," Alice was talking in an exceptionally calm voice. I hadn't even known that she was capable of that.

Wait did she say 'fly over'?

Where the hell was Rose?

Alice ended the phone call, hanging up on a very pissed off Rosalie as I could hear.

"Um Alice, where is Rose exactly?" I asked this lot you could never know, for all I knew Rose could be somewhere in China. But then again, Alice wouldn't order Rose to come over here when she was somewhere abroad, would she?

That question was answered by Alice.

"Rose is in Hong Kong. Her incompetent agent just left her a message yesterday that she had to fly over for a shoot. I keep telling Rose that she should get someone better for the job, that woman just keeps messing up." Alice sighed dramatically.

So she really was in China? I was momentarily stunned by this piece of information.

"—don't even know why she is pissed off. She didn't even book a flight or anything."

I hadn't noticed that Alice was still talking.

"Umm... what?"

Alice looked at me with disapproval clear in her eyes. She obviously didn't like it when people didn't pay attention to her.

"Rose is pissed at me, because she had been about to ditch her job and then I called to tell her that she didn't have to come," Alice explained quickly and then pulled me off of my bed.

"She was going to fly all the way back?" I asked in astonishment. I wouldn't have thought that Rose would do something like that for me. I mean, sure we got along and all, but one week was really not long enough to build any kind of everlasting friendship now was it?

"Of course she would. I only said it's a family emergency. It could have been Emmett for all she knows, but I guess I will have to call her again and calm her, before she flies back only to rip my face off," Alice said and pushed me into the bathroom. "Meanwhile you will take a shower and I expect you back out in fifteen minutes."

With that she closed the door behind me. I shook my head at her. She would make an excellent warden.

With a sigh, I took my clothes of and noticed the blood stains on my tank top. Huh, I wonder just how bad I had been bleeding. I looked at my bandaged wrist, slightly tempted to take the bandage off just to see what was underneath it. But then I remembered that I had already seen it and I already fainted once, so I decided against it. Also the bandage was done so neatly that I didn't really want to mess it up.

I stepped into the shower and just enjoyed the feeling of the hot water on my skin for several moments. It was still early in the morning and already enough events had taken place for a whole day. Hell, even a week.

Who doesn't want to start their day that way? Oh well, anything is better than starting the day in the hospital. Maybe I should be feeling some kind of gratitude, since Edward hadn't hauled me there while I was out cold.

From the way he had acted so far towards me, I wouldn't have put it past him. It's not like he had any troubles disregarding my wishes. Then again, we hadn't really spent that much time together so I wouldn't know that for sure. I pushed aside every thought of Edward, figuring that it couldn't be healthy to think of gorgeous and irritating men in the shower. And I was also pretty sure that Alice would drag me out of the shower if I let her wait for too long.

As soon as I made it out of the shower, Alice marched in, throwing clothes at me, before marching out again. She would not only be a good warden – the military would be more than happy to have her on board as well!

I dressed quickly and was actually surprised that I found myself liking the clothes Alice had chosen. Well, not really clothes seeing that it was just a simple sweater dress that ended mid-thigh, but still… I could live with that.

_You shouldn't feel safe just yet…_

Seriously, when did my inner ramblings develop a conscious of their own? Could it be that the lack of normal social activities is driving me crazy?

I didn't have time to think any more about it, because Alice was strutting in once more and pulled me along this time. She pushed me into the bedroom and dashed into the closet coming back out with a long necklace made of black and white beads, a braided and thin leather band which was black just like the purse that she was carrying out as well.

"Do I want to know how this thing ended up in there?" I asked, while Alice was positioning the leather band around my hips, before she tied a knot in it.

"Magic," Alice replied curtly and then stepped back after she was done decorating me like I was some kind of Christmas tree.

She frowned and disappeared again only to reappear with a pair of black pumps.

"Yeah and this is the part where I tell you that I'd rather shove those things up your ass then wearing them," I immediately commented when I saw those death traps.

"Oh please Bella, as if you were able to take me on. Just wear them and look a little more lady-like. Thanks to you little performance not so long ago, you and Edward are actually interesting to the public and it should be expected that Paparazzo turn up. That reminds me, you and Edward should start spending some time with each other." She said all of it so calmly, that I didn't fully register what she was saying or that she was already shoving my feet into those horrible things called shoes.

When I did finally process her words, I almost kicked her.

"What do you mean by 'start spending some time'? We did spent time together this morning. That's got to be enough for the next three weeks. You act as if we have known each other for years and were just avoiding any kind of contact until it was necessary..." I let my voice trail off, because that was exactly what has been going on.

Alice's look told me that she was thinking the same thing.

"You would do me great favour if you guys try to look a little like a couple and therefore attract some press. It's going to be great advertisement for me, since I'm planning your wedding. Plus, you're going to marry one of the most eligible bachelors in the country so you are going to be in the spotlight anyway. You might as well look good in it," Alice lectured.

I raised my eyebrows.

Edward Cullen was one of the most eligible bachelors in the country? Why? I mean, sure he was gorgeous and had those incredible green eyes that were oddly entrancing and he also had a body shape that made you wonder what exactly there was underneath those clothes. Not to mention his hair-

_Okay stop right there Swan! He might be a sexy man-candy, but he is still your fiancé…okay that didn't sound right. To phrase it differently. He's still an asshole, so keep your hormones in check! Plus, he nearly stabbed you!_

Thank you, my inner voice, for those enlightening words.

"Bella?" Alice called, sounding like she had been trying to gain my attention for a little while now.

I returned from my inner dialog and looked at her. "Yeah?"

"Did you even listen to me?"

"Sure."

"What did I say?" Alice challenged. "Something about me looking good in a spotlight," I recounted lamely.

Alice huffed and dragged me along. "I just said that we are going car shopping now."

"What? But I don't like shoppi—wait did you say car shopping?"

"Yes."

"Awesome. I love you Alice. Did I ever tell you that I love you? If not then let it be known that I love you."

I wanted to start skipping around in excitement, but the devil heels prevented me from doing that.

"Everybody loves me, so that is nothing new."

"Sure, sure, "I said dismissively and quickly grabbed everything that I needed to carry with me.

As soon as I had my keys, Alice almost threw me in the elevator.

"I never thought you were that interested in buying cars," I said to her.

"I'm not; I just like every kind of shopping and want to make sure you get yourself a pretty car. Plus, I have to leave you in the afternoon; I have a few appointments concerning the location of your wedding. The place that I originally had in mind is not working, because of the new theme," Alice blabbered.

"So you will not entertain me all day?"

"No, but Emmett asked me if I could drop you off at the hospital. He wants to spend time with 'his way cooler sister'," Alice said, while pulling a grimace and grinning at the same time

"Well he has taste," I told her.

"Yeah, yeah. I only agreed because Edward works in the hospital as well. You should spend lunch with him," Alice said, sounding like a teacher.

"What are you? My manager?" I grumbled.

The doors opened and Alice already strutted towards the entrance door and I had to hurry to keep up with the little person.

"Of course I am. I'm the only one who does this right."

"Yeah, yeah. That's what you think."

"Are you questioning my greatness?" Alice asked. The look she gave me was definitely terrifying.

"I would never," I lied swiftly.

"You better not."

Alice came to halt in front of a yellow Porsche.

"Please tell me this is not your car," I almost begged.

"Why not?" Alice sounded a little hurt.

"The car is brighter than the sun; you might get arrested for that."

"Only if I get caught," Alice replied and got into her car with a bright smile.

Somehow I had a feeling that it was highly impossible to catch Alice.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

"Land!" I yelled as I practically fell out of the car. I was nearly weeping in relief, while I was kneeling on the floor, contemplating kissing the ground.

Alice definitely took the saying "Never judge a book by its cover" to a whole new level. She may look cute and seemed like a sweet little sugar fairy in the beginning, but in reality she was a devious and merciless pixie. I had seen her in action before when she and Rose had taken me to go shopping for the dress and I was there when she was ordering people around in my apartment, actually scaring some of the workers.

I thought going car shopping with Alice could not be that bad since, she couldn't randomly throw cars at me and pull me form one store to the next. Unfortunately she managed to wear me out anyway; simply by wanting to test drive every car that she thought was cute and demanding from the sales person a quick summary about the cars' features.

Only Alice didn't speak the foreign language of "car and its owner" so she always had to ask and most definitely annoyed that poor man to death when he had to explain the cars in dummy terms for her. Basically she just took the lead in the whole thing and when I had finally put my foot down and insisted on getting the car that I wanted and not something cute in pink, she somehow arranged it behind my back that my car would be getting a paint job first before I ever got to see it. So basically I had to ride back with her again.

"Stop that dramatic act of yours. My driving is not that bad," Alice complained as she walked passed me.

"Not that bad?" I nearly shrieked and scrambled to my feet to follow her. "Your driving is horrible, it's the worst thing I ever had to sit through."

"My driving is very tolerable opposed to Edward's," Alice stated.

I frowned as I tried to remember Edward's driving, but I hadn't even been paying attention to that back then. Although I was pretty sure that Edward would not check his make-up whilst driving.

Alice seemed to take my silence as an agreement because she smiled smugly, while she led the way into the oversized hospital.

"Didn't you have to go somewhere?" I asked Alice.

"Yes, but I'll drop you off at Emmett's office."

The way she said it, it sounded as if I was a little kid who would get lost on her own. As if I would ever get lost… well, yeah I probably would. It's not like this was a normal hospital. It was like the capital city of medicine, which did not make it any better in my eyes. Each time I had been admitted to a hospital I added something new to the "Why I dislike hospitals list". There's yet to come some kind of positive aspect of being in a hospital. No matter how clean it was in every corner, it was still a place of sickness, sadness, death and misery.

Yes, I had an uncanny ability to always find the right words for every situation.

_But only in some kind of twisted parallel universe, where pink zebras are able to fly…_

I noticed that the entrance area in which we were just entering was not the same one as the last item. _Just how many entrances does this place have?_

"Mrs Whitlock, nice to see you again," the man at the reception desk greeted when we approached him.

"Hey Felix. Haven't seen you in a while," Alice replied.

"Well, I've been in the North Wing for quite some time and you barely walk around there," Felix answered with a wistful expression on his face. He was a quite handsome guy…well the average kind of handsome and his playful smile was really endearing.

"Yes, I know. I'm visiting my brothers a lot more often than my Dad." Alice sighed.

"So I'm guessing you're here to see one of your brothers?" Felix asked already typing something into the computer.

"Yes, we're going to see Emmett," Alice informed him happily.

"Hmmm… Mr Emmett Cullen used his card the last time in sector K4, in the cafeteria to be exact." Felix pulled out one of those key cards and handed it to Alice.

"You should take elevator number 28, because 27 is currently out of service." Alice nodded at the information and I thought that would be all, but she didn't move away from where she stood.

"Anything else, you need?" Felix asked politely, although he was more looking at me now.

"I was just wondering if you could get one of those cards accustomed to Bella," Alice said, waving the card in her hand and pointing at me.

"Well, I could get one done now, but the other desks will not have her on the list until tomorrow and there should be a reason why I need to do this," Felix answered with a thoughtful look on his face while he was still studying me.

"Oh Felix, I'm very disappointed in you. I thought you knew this," Alice said in mock disappointment and shook her head.

"Knew what?" he asked excitedly. The glint in his blue eyes and the expectant look on his face told me that he was a total sucker for gossip. I chuckled quietly to myself.

He was like a teenage gossip queen or something like that. I could really imagine how he and some of his co-workers, probably also a few nurses, were constantly exchanging rumours and such. A hospital this big should definitely have some interesting stuff going on within its walls.

"You're such a gossip merchant, Felix. It's kinda scary sometimes," Alice said with a giggle.

"I don't gossip," Felix clarified with a pout," I merely share my knowledge in exchange for even greater wisdom." I rolled my eyes at that. What a dramatic way to paraphrase.

"Well since you seem to be in the dark," Alice said slowly, lowering her voice as if this was some kind of big secret. Somehow I got the feeling that some of Felix's gossip topics had been provided for him by Alice. I wouldn't be surprised if she occasionally let things slip just to annoy her brothers or get her will in some weird and twisted way.

"You are looking at Ms Isabella Swan right here," she continued her little speech. I leaned against the counter and looked around in boredom. I wasn't really in the mood for playing High School with them right now and I also didn't have anything intelligent to say.

However I did notice that my name seemed to ring a tiny bell in Felix's head, but not big enough to get what Alice was getting at.

"You mean like related to Charles Swan?" he asked disbelievingly.

"I mean like, daughter of Charles Swan and fiancé of Edward Cullen."

"What?" Felix exclaimed, looking at me with curious eyes. "No way!"

"Yes way. She's wearing the ring, they live together and the wedding date is set. So she needs an all-access card."

"Oh my God, I thought Jane, the little whore, was just trying to get attention when she said that the bride has finally arrived. I swear she was so over the top it just seemed unbelievable. She was talking about her resurfacing from wherever she had been the whole time and how she and Edward were already moving through town in search for their new place and how wedding planners, organizers and such all over town were launching themselves at them in hopes of getting some kind of assignment and how the bride of our golden boy caused some kind of scandal at the Cullen Charity event.

"I mean, I heard that someone got drunk and apparently crashed into one of the tables, but I really didn't think it would be her. She's engaged to Edward Cullen, for heaven's sake, it's like totally impossible that she would ever do that," Felix was just gushing on and on and sounded more and more like a school girl.

If I had to guess, I would say that he had not been one of the popular kids in High School and was now trying to catch up. Or he had been one of them and never broke that nasty habit of his.

"Well, I'm sorry to tell you that Jane, the little whore, was right. Although Bella was not drunk at the event. She had been feeling off all day, because she just came back from India – you know jetlag and that stuff – and it was really messing with her circulation, but she tried to be as casual as possible and if you drink just one glass of Champaign in that condition and all of that combined with the nerves, since she hasn't been this exposed to the public for years…" Alice let her voice trail of and shook her head in faked sadness.

I wondered if they realized that I was standing next to them: By the way they had their heads stuck together and whispered, I guessed that they didn't. I had to suppress a snort at Alice's ridiculous lie. How could that possibly be a reason to crash into a table? Maybe stumble and take someone or something with you, but crash into a table? Not likely.

That lie would be discovered fast, considering this was a hospital.

"—and she's always had some circulation problems. It's mostly due to abrupt weather changes; it just makes her feel so sick that I really worry about her sometimes. She gets dizzy and doesn't feel well and it's just so awful. I told her to stay at home, but she really wanted to make the whole engagement official now for the public, mostly because of Edward and of course with the whole fusion-thing that will now be taking over the actual companies. Until now it was just some kind of signed deal and on paper it was already done, but you know that nothing changed at all, so now that these two companies will finally connect to be one it's just logical to make a big deal out of the wedding to keep the interest going and so on. After all these are medical concerns and not some record labels or something, so they need this kind of PR just to attract more sponsors, new scientist and heaven knows what else—"

I was really getting tired of Alice's speech, although I had to admit that it was pretty impressive. She was feeding Felix the most blatant lies and he was eating it all up like a starved child.

I shook my head at the two of them.

"That is so… I don't even have a word for it. I would have never thought that someone could be so selfless, you know," Felix said, sounding like he was going to cry.

"Yes and it's amazing how they are already getting along even though it all has been an arranged marriage. It's like they were just meant to be together," Alice kept on whispering her little lies.

"Just this morning she accidently cut herself, because she is a little clumsy, and Edward was such a sweetheart and bandaged it for her. He was totally frantic and wanted to drive her to the hospital so she had to calm him down, but he insisted that she would go and lie down, otherwise he wouldn't go to work and it was just so sweet. When Bella told me this earlier I was really moved. I feel like I don't even know my own brother, because Bella just bring out this entirely new side in him—"

So far this had been the only true thing coming out of Alice's mouth and I kind of regretted telling her the exact details of Edward's and my morning disaster. She really knew how to twist the facts until it sounded good.

But enough was enough. If she kept going like this, she might invent an unexpected pregnancy and that Edward and I were spending our free time feeding the homeless or something. She'd probably add that we like to take our neighbours' dogs out on the weekend as well

To help the poor woman who had only one leg. Oh god, now I'm starting as well.

"Um… Alice," I threw into the conversation, effectively gaining the attention of both of them.

"I think Emmett is waiting for us," I urged with a sweet smile on my face.

"Oh yes, Emmett," Alice exclaimed like she had forgotten about it. Which she probably had.

Felix eyed me now with even more curiosity in his eyes than before. I wasn't really sure if I should like him or not. He was definitely someone I would have to talk to a few times before I decided anything, but his gossiping tendencies were a big minus. Except they might come in handy for me.

"Alright, Ms Swan. You will get your very own all-access card. That way we don't have to check you in all the time. You'll just get your card and be off to wherever you want to go," he chirped in a light voice.

"I don't really have to know what you are talking about do I?" I asked him, since I had no real clue what he was getting at.

Felix let out a short laugh and shook his head in answer to my question.

"The key cards that we hand out are always registered to the person who it is given to and it only work for the section of the hospital that they will be in. That way the risk of getting lost is smaller and we can find people more easily. When they give the cards back, the name is erased from the card so we can use it for the next person.

The doctors all have their personal key cards, which enable them to move through the whole hospital. Well and the people on our all-access list like Mrs Whitlock, get all-access cards which enable them to move around into the whole hospital as well, the only difference is that those cards don't let you enter the surgery or any other areas off limits for everyone but the doctors. So that is basically it. And seeing that you are going to be the wife of Mr Cullen, you should get an all-access card just like all the other family members."

With these words he handed me a key card as well and smiled brightly. "It was very nice to meet you Ms Swan," he stated and I only nodded at him, while Alice led the way to the elevator.

As soon as we were in it, I turned to look at her with narrowed eyes, despite the fact that there was a small family standing in it with us.

"What the hell was that?" I asked her.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she sang innocently, although her grin showed that she knew exactly what I meant.

"Oh right. There is nothing out of the ordinary with that everlasting love between me and Edward. The bond of union tying us together, a bond forged out of the tears that our hearts shed when they first found each other, because the love, friendship understanding and consideration are so powerful that its purity shall make this world a brighter place. The way Edward and I love each other is completely unknown to mankind and it's almost frightening to endure, because the force is so strong that it almos—"

"Jesus, Bella you can stop now," Alice interrupted hastily. "Seriously, you should write some romance novels or something, just do something useful with those dramatic outbursts in case that happens often."

"Of course it does, because Edward, my one and only love, is my muse, my inspiration, my—" once again my heated speech was being interrupted.

"Okay, okay. I may have let my imagination run wild when I talked to Felix, but I did it for you."

"Out of love?" I asked her in a high pitched voiced and batted my eyelashes at her.

"No," she said, stretching the word, "Out of wisdom. Felix is gonna go around and tell everyone his version of my lies and soon you and Edward will have an excellent image within the walls of this hospital. Maybe even outside. I just thought it would be useful if people didn't think so badly of you and it doesn't hurt to make you guys look better," she lectured.

"You didn't have to overdo it, you know," I responded, "If Edward is going to hear this; I hope he doesn't throw a fit or anything."

"Of course not. He has no reason for that. Emmett might go into hysterics and will never let you hear the end of it but other than that it's all good."

Alice looked confident as she said that. Well, it would be interesting to hear how Alice's already over-the-top-lies would sound after it had been passed on from one person to the other. There better be something good coming out of that, otherwise I would have to make sure to start a fight with Edward in front of Felix.

I didn't get to think any more about any of this, because Alice found the venue of the wedding ceremony a very interesting topic and therefore started chatting away, barely pausing to catch a breath.

She led the way over those horrible catwalks, managed to ask a receptionist where exactly Emmett was right now and never stopped talking to me once. It was really impressive, but I had to wonder if this might be affecting her health. Surely it can't be good for a person to be so energetic all the time, could it?

"Hey shorty, when was the last item you took a breath?" the deep voice, that belonged to Emmett suddenly asked. I turned and saw Emmett walking behind us casually as if he had been with us the whole time.

"Since when have you been following us?" I asked him, amazed that someone as big and loud as Emmett actually managed to sneak up on us.

"Only a few seconds. I just saw you passing and thought that you might be here to see me," Emmett answered with a grin. I couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Well then, I guess I will be leaving," Alice announced, looking at the two of us.

"What? You're leaving just like that?" Emmett asked in surprise.

"Sure, I only wanted to drop Bella off. I still have work to do, you know," Alice retorted and was already pulling out her cell phone.

"I'm telling you dearest sister you are working way too much. If you keep going at this rate you will be one of my patients, 'cause you'd need to get rid of those wrinkles," Emmett said to her with a playful sound in his voice as he poked her lightly on the forehead.

"I don't wrinkle, I'm an immortal and supernatural being that doesn't age. Ever," Alice stated and already started to make her exit from the waiting area that we were currently standing in.

Emmett's booming laugh didn't seem to bother anyone here and Alice simply grinned and waved before she vanished.

"Well Ms Swan, looks like it's just you and me now," he noted after he was done shaking the walls with his laughter.

"Seems like it," I agreed.

"Unfortunately, I still have a few patients to see, but you don't mind being in the audience for now do you?" he asked, while he looked at a clipboard that he had been holding in his hand.

"I don't mind, but what about your patients?"

Emmett only waved his hand dismissively at that and pulled me with him. He put the clipboard on the desk of yet another receptionist and quickly said something to her before he led me into his office. Or at least I assumed that it was his office seeing that there was a sign with 'Dr E.D. Cullen' outside on the door. He sat down behind his desk and gestured for me to sit on the small leather couch on the right side of the room.

Just then the office door opened and a woman entered the office. She was tall and slim and had long reddish-brown hair. She cast a quick look at me before she sat down in front of Emmett's desk.

"Hello Heidi, I hope you don't mind that my little sister is in here," Emmett greeted her.

Heidi looked at me once more and shook her head. "It's fine with me."

"Alright then, let's get started," Emmett turned to his computer for a second before he faced her again. "We didn't have another check-up planned so what brings you here?" he asked her lightly.

"Well, I had this really stupid accident last week, it wasn't all that horrible since I was just Inline Skating, but I fell quite hard and I was afraid that tone of my implants had burst," Heidi explained swiftly. She looked indeed pretty worried about that and bit her lip nervously.

"Let me have a look at it," Emmett murmured as her got up and walked to her side. Heidi just took of her shirt and got up to make it easier for Emmett to inspect her rather large and firm breasts.

Somehow it seemed very strange to me that Emmett was inspecting her tits and just randomly touched certain spots while asking her questions. Heidi however was not even a tiny bit uncomfortable. It seemed like it was a perfectly normal occurrence, which it probably was considering that Emmett seemed to be the one who had put those implants in in the first place.

Still it was very weird to watch the scene in front of me no matter how professional and collected Emmett seemed and how comfortable this Heidi person was.

That was a very good example to show me that I had yet to get to know him better. I sighed quietly to myself.

The next thirty minutes or so I spent watching Emmett interact with his patients. He was perfectly polite to all of them, slipped a little joke here and there and just seemed to be an overall good doctor. Impressive.

"Okay now Bella, we will go and get something to eat 'cause I'm starving," Emmett announced when he had dismissed his last patient and got up from his chair.

"Then let's go fast before we have to send you into the ER, 'cause you fainted on me," I mocked.

Emmett looked at me with a serious look on his face. "You know, that really might happen and if that is the case, I don't want Edward to treat me."

"There is no way in hell that this will happen and even if it should – what do you have against Edward?"

"Absolutely nothing. He's one of the best doctors in this hospital, but I'm afraid that he'll use the time period of my unconsciousness to get back at me for all the pranks I made him endure throughout his life." Emmett laughed, probably thinking back to each of those pranks.

I shook my head at him and smiled slightly at his goofiness. "Well, he didn't drag me to the hospital when I fainted so I really doubt tha—" I stopped talking when Emmett's head whipped around so abruptly that it should have fallen off his shoulders.

"You fainted? When? And why do I only hear this now? And what does Eddie-boy have to do with it" Emmett immediately pressed, shaking me gently.

"Umm… yeah, I kinda fainted this morning. No big deal really," I mumbled, not looking at Emmett. There was no way that I would tell him the whole story, because I was pretty sure he would laugh at me when he heard that I fainted at the sight of blood.

"That did not answer all of my questions," Emmett said, looking pointedly at me.

"I'm not gonna tell you anything else."

"Does the bandage on your wrist have anything to do with it?" Emmett asked, glancing down at my arm.

"Maybe." I pressed my lips together in a tight line and I could see in his face that it drove Emmett crazy not to know what had occurred. Then his eyes suddenly widened.

"You cut yourself, didn't you?"

"Wha—"

"Oh God, my little boozer tried to kill herself because she couldn't stand to be with Edward any longer," Emmett cried in desperation, throwing his arms in the air.

"I didn—"

Emmett pulled me in for a fierce hug. "Don't deny it, baby sis. It's obvious that all of this has been really hard on you. The engagement, now the upcoming wedding and then actually moving in with Edward."

I really didn't know what to say. Yes, I know I should have set things right, right away but come on… who wouldn't be speechless if a giant like Emmett was putting on a dramatic show like this one, with actual tears shimmering in his eyes while he was looking up, thanking God for letting me survive. He then instantly retrieved his phone from the pocket of his white doctor coat and hit speed dial just like Alice had earlier.

"Hey, Emm—" I tried to protest, but he was already talking.

"Jazzco, I don't care where you are right now, but will have to move your ass to the hospital. We're going to have a talk with Eddie."

Now that confused me. If _I_ tried to kill myself, why would he want to have a talk with Eddie? Err, I mean Edward. And what's up with that weird nickname for Jasper- if it was Jasper he had been talking to. For all I knew he really could have called someone named Jazzco, but it seemed unlikely and made even less sense. I shook my head to get rid of those horrible nicknames that really didn't suit their owners.

Whatever Jasper must have replied seemed to be good enough for Emmett, because he let out a grunt of approval and then hung up.

"Alright, we don't have to wait 'till Mama Bear makes his appearance, we can already track down that foolish fiancé of yours," Emmett said with determination. He put his arm around my waist and lifted me up as if carrying a package under his arm.

"What the—let me down you big oaf," I immediately screeched.

"Not a chance, you're staying close to me so I can keep an eye on you," Emmett told me, his voice sounding dead serious.

_Oh dear God, how did I end up here?_

That's an excellent question to which I, unfortunately, don't have an answer.

I squirmed and struggled to get out of Emmett's grip but he just carried me around like I weighed nothing at all. We passed through different waiting areas and each time we drew the attention of every single person to us. I really couldn't blame them, because it must look pretty weird. You wanna know how weird? Hmm… where do I start?

Well, basically what those people were staring at was a guy, 6'5, with a dead serious look on his face and a 5'4 girl being carried under his left arm like it was the most normal thing in the world. To make things even more disturbing for the bystanders, that insanely tall and muscular guy was also wearing a doctor's lab coat with a name tag on it, while the girl wore only a short dress that she desperately tried to pull down, but couldn't since she was also busily trying to get out of his grasp, so she ended up giving everyone a bit of a peepshow by letting the world know that Mrs Mary-Alice Whitlock—formerly known as Ms Mary-Alice Cullen, founder of the Fashion label, Jazzine—had paid special attention to staying within a certain colour scheme, which meant that the panties the world got to see were white.

Not just any normal white panties, though. No, they could be classified as pretty lingerie that did not serve the purpose of covering up her entire backside. All of that, and the fact that the girl was shrieking things like: "My lawyers will hear of this!", "This should be illegal! Why the hell is there no law against this?", and "I swear to God I will fuck you up big time as soon as you let me down!" as well as many more things—some of them in Italian—while the guy merely grunted things that nobody understand, and snarled occasionally at the people who got in his way.

Yep, that would be exactly what it looked like to others. If I would have seen this kind of weirdo scene in front of me, I would have thought it was some kind of kidnapping.

Honestly, Emmett didn't look the typical doctor, so it could be assumed that he just stole the coat to sneak in and steal one of the patients. Me.

The way to wherever we were going seemed endless and even though I was twisting and turning into every possible direction and angle, Emmett didn't budge even once.

Eventually we came to halt in front of one of the millions of receptionist desks in this building. The guy behind the desk looked a little lost.

Don't worry, you're not the only one buddy…

"Where is that brother of mine? I have things to talk about with him," Emmett all but growled at the poor guy.

"Umm... he's…" the receptionist hurried to get the information for Emmett, but he seemed to be intimidated. Understandable, after all there was a human bear glaring and growling at him, if the poor kid pissed his pants I would not judge him. Even though he had my mental support, he refrained from pissing his pants and instead knocked a few items off his desk in his haste.

"Hurry, I—" Emmett started to snarl, but was interrupted by a much more peaceful sounding voice.

"What the heck is going on here?" I didn't need the bight freight train that was still holding me to turn around to recognize that this was Edward's voice.

Despite his choice of words, which I wouldn't even classify as any kind of real cursing, he sounded more surprised than anything else.

Now that Emmett had finally reached his destination, he seemed to have turned his thinking off. "I've got a pick to bone with you, Eddiekins," Emmett immediately started, completely ignoring the amount of people around us everywhere.

"Umm...what?" Edward asked, confusion clearly written on his face.

_Oh Emmett, why? _I shook my head at him and concentrated on not creating any images in my mind. A few people in our audience were laughing quietly.

"You heard me, Mister. Mama Bear and I have something to talk to you about."

What the fuck was this Mama Bear business about?

I would have asked that out loud, if Emmett hadn't started squeezing the life out of me.

I couldn't help but feel like I was being ignored, mainly because nobody seemed to be talking to me or even acknowledging my presence in some way. I probably just looked like a purse on Emmett's arm or he always ran about with random people as luggage.

Edward's highly confused expression was now replaced by an interesting mixture of exhaustion and annoyance. He moved over to the impossibly pale receptionist, to retrieve one of those doctor clipboards and started to look through the pages.

"Can't you and Jasper bone that pick alone?" he asked absent-mindedly. He sounded like this was a regular occurrence. First of all, what did Jasper have to do with this and how come that he wasn't even here but was being acknowledged, while they kept ignoring me?

And secondly: Why the hell did he have to use Emmett's way of phrasing?

I suppressed any kind of mind-movies and thought of pleasant things instead. Puppies. Kittens. Pussies. Dicks. Boner. Bone a—okay, no more thinking for me today. I would have shuddered if I had been able to move.

"Seriously, what's wrong with you Eddie? That is just disgusting," Emmett complained.

Edward looked up with a sigh. "I only repeated what you said. If there is no real purpose behind your visit could I please resume my work?"

"Wha—No!"

Another sigh came from Edward.

"Don't roll your eyes at me, E-kid. I'm your older brother and I will have a little talk with you now."

"About what?" Edward's lack of care was definitely making this situation funny… for everyone who was not hanging half-naked off somebody's arm.

Emmett threw his arms up in exasperation. "Your incapability to treat my new baby sister right and make sure that she doesn't hurt herself," Emmett shouted at the same time as Edward's eyes flicked to me and he yelled his brother's name to warn him.

Sadly that did not do anything for me. At least, I now knew that Edward had noticed me hanging off his brother's arm and I also knew that Emmett was a huge hypocrite, because before he even ended his speech I hit the ground with a loud thud.

I couldn't quite decide if it was a good or a bad thing. On one hand I could finally move again, breathe properly and more importantly pull the dress down. On the other hand it definitely hurt and somehow I thought that the searing pain in my patched up wrist was not a good thing either. I rolled around to lie on my back and groaned to express just how much my fall had hurt me – both physically and emotionally. My ego was definitely bruised as well, although that could also be the aftermath of Emmett carrying me around the whole place like a toy. Hopefully nobody had recognized me, because then Alice's gossiping effort would go to waste.

"Ah, I think she's awake now. See the frown on her face?" I heard a male voice say. Hm... A beautiful voice that seemed somewhat familiar. I opened my eyes and blinked carefully only to see the face of Emmett right above me with his usual big grin.

"Welcome back, sleeping beauty," he said – or more accurately – shouted. I flinched at the volume of his voice and shut my eyes again. His voice had not been the beautiful one I heard.

"Keep it down Emmett, will you?" I heard someone hiss. Yep, that was a beautiful voice. Beautiful, musical and maybe even angelic. It belonged to Edward, but it was not the voice I was searching for.

I heard a third person sigh. "Really Emmett, sometimes I just have to wonder about you."

Ah, that was the voice I was looking for.

Without thinking that I might want to open my eyes first, I sat up in one swift motion. Or at least I had intended to do that. In reality, my head banged against something rock-hard and I had no choice but to lie down again.

I always thought that cartoon makers just had too much imagination, since there was no way that a person would see stars or hear birds chirp when they got knocked out.

Very wrong. One of those people must have had a similar bad-luck driven day as I had, because I saw chirping stars.

"Emmett, I can't believe that you knocked her out. Twice," I heard a high soprano voice chirp disapprovingly.

"Hey, it's hardly my faul—"

"It is your fault," a sharp voice interrupted. I started to get annoyed that I kept hearing Edward's voice when I was in a somewhat unconscious state, but I was also startled by the way he had just spoken to Emmett.

It definitely had made the big goof shut his even bigger trap, so he wouldn't hear any complaints from me.

Since I had now the time to wonder where the fuck I was, I did just that. I only opened my left eye a tiny bit and came to the conclusion that I was in a hospital bed, in my own little hospital room.

I saw Alice sitting on the edge of my bed, glaring at Emmett who sat on the opposite side of her, looking at the floor.

Poor idiot. Being yelled at by Alice for knocki—He knocked me out twice?

Well, that explained why my head felt like a fucking truck had been parked on it. I reached up to my forehead to rub it and ease the pain, but instead I just felt more pain.

Not that freaking wrist again… Great, just great. _Hello, this is Isabella Swan and my life sucks. Right now I'm busy wishing to die in a hospital bed, so if there is anything else waiting to make my day even more horrible, please leave a message after the beep and I promise to get back to you…_

"Oh my God Bella, it took forever for you to wake up," Alice immediately blabbered, when she saw me move.

I squeezed my eyes shut, not particularly fond of the way she was shaking me.

"Stop shaking her, Alice," Emmett instructed.

"Like you should be talking," Alice only huffed as a reply, but thankfully did stop shaking me.

"Which one of us is the doctor here?" Emmett asked her in a challenging voice.

"Obviously not you, since doctors don't knock out their patients without any medical reason to do so."

"Psh, you're just jealous because Bella is my new favourite sister."

"I could care less about that. You're not going to be her favourite anything after this little disaster here."

"How would you know? Are you a psychic now?"

"I don't have to be psychic to tell you that. And you know what else—"

I tuned the two of them out and stared at the ceiling and added another thing to my list.

Bella's 'Why I hate hospitals' list:

_1)__ The smell of cleansers makes me feel like I need a shower._

_2) T__he waiting times are so impossibly long, that whatever injury I have is already halfway healed by the time it's my turn._

_3) __Doctors enjoy probing and prodding too much._

_4) __Ignorant, arrogant and obnoxious Nurses telling me to stop whining and suck it up.__(Well, excuse me for feeling sick and bleeding half to death)_

_5) __Hospital food is gross…and I also think it's alive, because normally food doesn't move._

_6) __Water Jug Ladies have the annoying habit of bursting into your room early in the morning, announcing their arrival with an annoying sing song voice. (Yeah, because bursting in the room, flicking the lights on and bearly ripping the curtains off was not enough to let me know that.)_

_7) __Those horrible, demon worshipping, blood sucking and ugly ass Blood Collectors. They strut in with their little trolleys of torture tools waving the biggest bloody needle they can find because they are more worried about making their job easier rather than using a small needle to make it less painful for you._

_8) __Midnight Drugs! (Anything that disturbs me in my peaceful slumber can't be good, not even if it's drugs)_

_9) __Annoyingly loud pixies and grizzlies. Even though they are there 'cause they worry about you, all they do is fight – and that's loud enough for the whole state to hear._

Just when I finished adding that last point to my mental hate list – which I should write down some day – a face appeared in my line of vision. Edward was looking down at me with an inspecting look on his face.

"How do you feel Isabella?" he asked, calmly.

"Fucking perfect," I mumbled sarcastically.

Edward, who had been about to write my answer down, paused and looked back up at me and raised his eyebrows. At least he was not giving me his usual disapproving stare along with a speech.

I sighed before I answered truthfully," My head hurts like hell and so does my wrist and I don't wanna know what else hurts when I try to move."

I watched while Edward scribbled that down and saw the frown that briefly crossed his features.

"Can you sit up?" he asked then. I carefully moved into a sitting position, without leaning on my right arm or banging my head against anything. Much to my surprise no other body parts hurt. "Any complaints?" Edward continued his questioning. I just shook my head.

"Alright then, let me take a look at your arm," he instructed and held his hand out.

How could I have not noticed those long fingers before? Oh, the wonderful things these fingers could do…

_Yeah, like playing Piano or maybe the guitar…_

Edward loosened the bandage on my wrist and quickly glanced at my wound underneath it. Whatever he saw didn't seem to please him, judging by the frown that made its way onto his face once again. His gaze landed on my face for a split second, before he turned his attention to his siblings. The two of them were still snapping at each other.

"At least I made it into the football team without threatening the team captain," Emmett bragged now.

"Of course you didn't threaten him, because I did that for you. You only got in because the captain was scared of me," Alice hissed back at him.

"Oh please, he only acted as if he was scared because I asked him to do that in order to prevent your feelings from getting hurt."

"Oh yeah, is that why you asked me to bully Rose into dating you?"

"I ne—"

"Could the two of you please continue outside?" Edward asked, not bothering to mask his annoyance.

Alice and Emmett were too caught up in their bickering to actually protest or anything. They just left the room, still hissing and snapping at each other.

I just shook my head at them. There were no words that I deemed adequate to describe these two at the moment.

Edward mumbled something under his breath and I was pretty sure that I caught the word 'bothersome'. It worked but was not quite right for those two.

"What is?" Edward asked, sounding confused and turned back to look at me.

"Huh?" _Not your best retort, Swan._

"You said it's not quite right for those two," he clarified.

Oh, I hadn't even realized that I said that out loud.

"It's nothing really," I mumbled and looked at a random spot at the floor. Ever talked to an invisible bug? I have.

"If you say so," Edward said didn't seem to care if I did or did not tell him.

I had moved from the spot I just had been to the edge of the bed which was why Edward said," I think you should lie down."

I looked at him with raised eyebrows, not really seeing the sense in lying down if he was just going to doctor around on my wrist again, but I obliged anyway.

Edward pulled a chair to my side and then walked out of the room. I stared after him feeling more than just a little confused.

I waited for a few minutes, in which my headache seemed to lessen, thanks to the fact that it was actually quite in the room now.

Edward then returned with one of those 'Nurse-carts' as I liked to call them with various scary looking tools on it. I grimaced at the very thought of a needle. If there was something I hated more than smelling blood, it would be a needle. Any kind of needle that came too close to my skin was not my friend, no matter what the doctor used to tell when I was little and I also didn't care about how many lollipops I got afterwards.

Breaking my skin with anything sharper than a pencil was an absolute no-no.

It only took Edward a few seconds to take off the bandage and I really should have known better than to watch his long fingers in action.

Psh what a lame way to get those fingers moving. There are plenty more kinds of action…

Fortunately, nobody cared what the inner voice had to say although that didn't mean that I didn't hear that going through my mind. Associating Edward with any kind of sexual thoughts was not healthy, didn't I already establish that at some point?

The blush that was slowly creeping on my face didn't seem to agree with me on that. Traitor. Of course it would have been easy to ignore the slight warming in my cheek if Edward hadn't looked up at me suddenly as if he had heard my thoughts.

I didn't say that out loud again, did I? Now that was a reason to blush.

"Maybe you shouldn't look if you can't stand the sight of blood. I don't think that fainting for the fourth time today would be advisable," he said in his calm doctor voice.

I agreed with him on that, so I sank back in the pillows and stared at the ceiling again. Now the lying down did make sense. I wrinkle my nose in disgust and was about to concentrate on breathing through my mouth, when Edward spoke once more, "It's probably gonna hurt a little. The cut is a little wider now, so you must have torn it. I guess I need to sew that up, I actually should have done that earlier." There was something in his voice that I couldn't quite make out. Guilt? Anger?

I stopped trying to decipher Edward's emotional state and processed his word properly.

"What?" I screeched, "Can't you just tape me up or fix it with glue?"

"Not if you want to use your hand for the upcoming weeks," Edward replied calmly.

I stared at him in panic. He was already getting ready for the torture and he was completely unfazed as well. How evil of you, Edward. _How very very evil. You should know better than treating your wife like this._

"I don't need my hand. I'll hire someone who will have to stand in as substitute for my right hand."

"It would leave a big scar."

I laughed nervously. "I don't care. I love scars it's better than a scrapbook. That way I'll always be reminded of…of…of the first morning in our new apartment. The scar makes the whole thing legendary," I blabbered. Who cares if I was talking senseless shit? I didn't want that needle anywhere near me.

"Just lie back down and try to think of something else," Edward instructed and pushed me into the pillows again.

Okay something else to concentrate on… breathing. But for some reason I knew that if I just started to breathe through my mouth I would soon be hyperventilating. I needed to talk I had always rambled on and on about trivial things when my doctors had been working on patching me up. But those doctors hadn't been my fiancés that tended to find everything I said uncalled for. Not that I cared about that, but I didn't really want to piss the man off that would be jabbing a needle through my skin.

While he was cleaning off the blood again, I was desperately trying to forget the needle. If only Alice and Emmett had stayed here. Okay, when I thought about it I didn't really want to have them here. Those two…

"You know I just meant that the term wasn't really suitable for them," I blurted out.

"Umm... what do you mean?" Edward asked me, obviously having no clue what I was talking about.

"You asked what it was that wasn't quite right for those two," I replied and only gestured toward the door when I spoke of 'those two'.

"I'm afraid I'm still not following you."

"After you kicked them out you mumbled something and I heard you saying 'bothersome' and I had just been thinking how I could not come up with the right adjective to describe them and bothersome is also not quite suitable," I explained lamely.

"Do you have a better suggestion?" His voice didn't sound annoyed or anything like that. He sounded like he really wanted to know just that.

"Not really. All that comes to my mind is obnoxious, but that doesn't really work either."

"Why not? It sounds like the perfect description to me," Edward replied.

"Just barely. I use that term quite often, which is why I don't think they deserve it as a describing adjective. It should be something that expresses how they get on my nerves and make me question the reason for having to endure them," I mused.

"Annoying," Edward proposed.

"No, that sounds too harmless and too normal."

"Irritating?"

"Still makes it sound like they are normal."

"Are you saying that they are not?"

"Nobody is to be exact, but Alice and Emmett are certainly not normal. You just have to spend five minutes with them and you will start to question your purpose in life. The weird thing is that they can both be highly aggravating, but immensely amusing at the same time which basically leads to confusion, because something that annoys you like that shouldn't be funny to you. And of course it's also tiring with them. I feel like Alice is practically sucking my energy out of me."

That's when I heard it. Completely unexpected, but still beautiful and somewhat entrancing. A quiet and short chuckle left Edward's mouth.

I really didn't know why I'd gotten this hung up with his voice, but I couldn't help but notice the beauty of the sound he made.

"Yes, the two of them are a little too energetic," he agreed and then continued, "I think you found the word you were looking for."

"Energetic?"

"No, you just said 'aggravating'."

"Hmm, I suppose that would work. 'Antagonizing' should not be considered, should it?"

"That sounds a bit harsh."

"Hmm." I hummed as I searched my mental dictionary for more words. "'Disturbing' sounds a little too harmless and 'enraging' isn't right either. Maybe 'infuriating'?"

I waited for a short moment.

"Am I supposed to answer?" Edward asked, sounding a little caught off guard.

"You could if you feel up to it."

"Umm... no?" Why he made that sound like a question was not known to me.

"'Pestering' or 'tormenting'?"

"I think 'tormenting' is the better one, but sounds so dark."

"Yes, yes. Maybe something like 'burdensome'?"

"Uh…"

"No, that sucks. Hmm…'harassing', 'demanding', 'gnawing', 'irksome'..." I was definitely in my element here. While I was ticking off every possible adjective that could describe just how troublesome Emmett and Alice were, I felt how Edward was making the stitches. Not exactly what I called comfortable, but I was busy thinking of words, so I didn't dwell on that for too long.

And then I was hit with sudden inspiration and I cried, "I've got it!"

"And which one of the 147 words would that be?" Edward mumbled next to me. He sounded like he was not paying that much attention to me anymore. Whatever.

"Exasperating," I nearly sang and grinned like a fool. It was really just the perfect word to describe that horrid combination of Emmett and Alice in a worked up state.

"Exasperating?" Edward asked disbelievingly, "That's it? And here I thought you were going for something really big."

I turned my head to the side to meet his gaze.

"Don't you have a sense of creativity? It's not the word itself but what it expresses."

"All the words you listed had very similar or even identical meanings, so you could have taken any of those," Edward retorted dryly.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Of course you would say that. You're a doctor; your brain only works on logic, big and uninspiring words are the ones that fill your mind."

"Which is why you can leave this room now without having to fear that you'll bleed to death," he simply stated and patted my new bandage lightly, before he got up and exited the room without any more words directed at me.

Oh good, I had already been starting to wonder when things went back to normal.

Usually it didn't bother me when people didn't share my opinions because it was obviously not my problem, but for some unknown reason it irked me that he didn't seem to understand what I was talking about. It was kind of ridiculous even because I didn't care about his doctor stuff either. Still, I couldn't help but feel _irritated_.

Bella's 'Why I don't like hospitals' list:

_10__) Getting stitches is not only terrifying but also involves irritation at some point_

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><p><strong><em>AN:_ Alright, firs off: I didn't get to thank my awesome, cool, funny, intelligent, cute, nice and brilliant beta _justareaderfan_ for doing her work so quickly. It's kinda in the middle off the night for both of us and I jsut got home and saw the chapter in my inbox. Sooo... Thank you. By the way you might wanna check out her stories just to be nice. She wrote one pretty awesome one- shot for example, which is called "Long Overdue". There are a lot more interesting stories and I want you to check them out.**

**Okay now we tlak about the chapter... I was in a pretty silly mood while writing it, so that explains the strange events in that one. Once again we all have to thank my beta, because when I finally made it to typing I kinda had a writer's block and had to beg her for help. A few magical words from her and I came up with that morning accident. Yes, all I need for inspiration are a few suggestions. So in case there is anything that you really wanna see happening you can tell me and I'll see if I can work it into the story. **

**What else was there to say? Oh right. I'll be expecting a lot of reviews, because I wanna know what you think of Edward and Bella getting along for a short amount of time. Or maybe you will tell me that Emmett is in fact a big and lovabale idiot. Also you guys should be wondering where exactly Jasper is and if Emmett even called him to tell him that there was no need for him to come... Obviously I know where he is and I can tell you this much: Wherever he is it kinda looks like a boat and has the best Spaghetti there. (Although we don't know how the Spaghettis taste that Bella makes)**

**Alright that's it. I love you guys and I hope I will be hearing from all of you soon :D**


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N:**___** Hey, look at that! A new chapter. I hope I haven't kept you waiting for too long...**

**Before you guys start reading you should all know that the outcome of the chapter was not my idea- credit goes to my amazin beta, who insisted on this particular scene.**

**Okay, I won't talk much this time just go on and read :D**

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><p>"Are you feeling better now?" Alice asked me gently.<p>

"I'm fine, Alice," I sighed for what felt like the millionth time.

Both Emmett and Alice have been asking me that over and over again ever since Edward had left.

"Are you su—"

Thankfully she was cut off by the ringing of my phone. My patience had definitely worn off.

I rummaged through my purse and pulled my phone out.

I answered it without checking the caller's ID.

"Hello?"

"Baby- Bells," the voice on the other end greeted.

I instantly regretted answering the phone without checking the caller's ID.

"Ugh, Jake, where did you get my phone number?" I asked in annoyance. At the same time I did my best to ignore the curious looks I got from Alice and Emmett.

"Aw Bellsie, don't be like that. I only called you to congratulate you to your birthday," he replied.

"Jake, my birthday was over a week ago," I griped. "And you still didn't answer my question."

"You could at least act as if you appreciate me calling you. And Leah gave me your new phone number, by the way."

"Leah? How the hell did you get her to give you my number? She should know better than that."

"Oh, I told her how much I care about you and all of that mushy stuff. She didn't buy it, but gave me the number anyway… I only had to bribe her," Jake said nonchalantly.

"How exactly did you manage to bribe her? Especially you of all people?"

This was rather ridiculous. Leah had everything so I couldn't exactly imagine how Jacob managed to bribe her. Jacob had absolutely nothing to offer that Leah wanted- he was like nasty old gum stuck to the sole of her shoe.

"I might have mentioned a few pictures that I took last spring break and accidental let slip that my father works as her dad's adviser…" Jake let his voice trail off and I was pretty sure that he was grinning to himself at this very moment.

"Wow Jake, you really are a very good friend. I wonder how I survived all this time without you," I said sarcastically.

"It's a miracle, I know. But no worries, I'm on my way already."

I snapped my mouth shut for a second, his comment catching me completely off guard.

"What do you mean 'you're on your way'?" I demanded, already fearing his answer.

Behind me I could hear Alice and Emmett whisper excitedly.

"I mean, that I'm on my way to that awful town that you are calling your home now. You should be expecting me in the next hour or so," he informed me, still sounding unconcerned.

"You can't come here," I all but screeched into the phone, "You don't even know where I live, for God's sake and usually people ask before they turn up to ruin other people's lives."

"Chillax, Bellsie. Leah also gave me your address. I'm looking forward to meet that grandmother of yours. She sounds like a real sweetheart. See ya in a bit."

And with that said he simply hung up on me.

I was still holding the phone to my ear, my mouth hanging open.

Jacob Black was coming to town.

Not only that, but he also took my address from Leah, who didn't even know that I was not at my parent's place anymore.

It was one thing for her to show up at my parent's house wanting to see me, but it was an entirely different thing if Jacob was the one who demanded to be led to my room.

This was a disaster.

If I hadn't been so convinced that my life was fucked up before, I would definitely have the proof for that by now.

What did I ever do to deserve this amount of punishment, all of it in one day?

"Bella, don't you want to tell us who this 'Jake' person is?" Emmett asked sweetly, although I could hear the curiosity ring in every single word.

"Not really," I hissed through clenched teeth.

"Oh my gosh, he's your boyfriend, isn't he?" Alice exclaimed in a shocked voice. "Why didn't you tell us that you have a boyfriend and more importantly- why do you even have a boyfriend? You have been engaged all your life. You can't just cheat on your husband."

I raised my eyebrows at Alice. "Alice, I di—"

"I mean, I understand if there had been some kind of teenage romance or anything, since the two of you weren't really official at the time, but as soon as that engagement ring had been in your possession…" Alice let her voice trail off to let out a dramatic sigh.

"Could you please stop making assumptions all the time? As you have proved today, it only causes trouble," I said in exasperation.

Alice stared at me for a second before she spoke," So does that mean Jake is not your boyfriend?"

Now it was my turn to sigh.

"We might have been something like a couple sometime in the past, but it was never serious, seeing that I had been engaged all my life," I repeated her earlier words.

"Your ex-boyfriend's coming here?" Emmett asked, sounding a little too eager.

"No, Jacob is coming here. Huge difference," I argued.

"How is that different?" Alice questioned.

"It's different because Jake has been lingering around for years after we broke it off. I suppose you could call him a friend of mine."

I grimaced at the thought.

"Oh... Okay, I guess everything is alright then," Alice replied. "So when do we meet this friend of yours?"

"Never," I answered gloomily.

"Why not?" Alice and Emmett chorused.

"Because my grandmother is going to kill him right before she's going to hunt me down. My father will probably help her slaughtering Jake, since he never really liked dogs."

Emmett threw his arm around me.

"Aww, don't be so dramatic, Belly-bean."

"I'm not being dramatic, I'm being realistic. My parents and my grandmother are always a little picky when it comes to choosing the right friends for me. Apparently I don't make good choices. Just because Jared was the one to crash my Lamborghini."

I sighed wistfully at the memory.

"Who's Jared?" Alice asked curiously.

"An old friend."

"You seem to have a lot of male friends," Alice noted.

I thought about it for a minute.

"Yes. Yes, I do," I agreed with her, grinning slightly.

I didn't even know why most of my friends were guys. Probably because it was easier to deal with them than any prissy girls that had nothing better to do than throwing themselves at random guys.

Not that I had anything against girls. I just had a lot against those that had been in the same educational institutions as I had been.

"So are you planning on saving Jake?" Alice asked, interrupting my thoughts.

I grimaced. "Not really, but I suppose it would be the right thing to do, right?"

Both Alice and Emmett nodded in agreement.

I sighed and turned my attention back to the phone in my hand.

It shouldn't have surprised me though that Jake ignored my call, seeing that he knew me well enough to know that I would always try calling him to make him re-think his plans.

I scowled at the phone and then quickly dialled the number of the first person I could think of.

"Hello?" a sleepy voice answered.

"Are you still sleeping?" I asked disbelievingly.

"Not anymore now that you woke me up."

"Well, I won't apologize for that, Leah. I've had a pretty shitty day so far and you are at fault that it just got worse five minutes ago."

"What are you talking about? I'm hundreds of miles away from Chicago and I was fast asleep until a few seconds ago," Leah protested and then let out a yawn.

"I don't care. You were the one who gave Jake my phone number and address. How could you do that to me? I thought we were friends," I retorted.

"Aren't you friends with Jacob as well? You're acting as if I gave your number to some crazy stalker."

I groaned.

"That's not the point. I'm just not in the mood to deal with Jake right now and I don't even live in my parent's house anymore. And now he's on his way there and I'm nowhere near that house."

"You moved out?"

Now Leah started to sound awake.

"Yes, I moved out," I grumbled in response.

"Wow, never thought you would actually do that. That's not because of this fiasco at the charity event is it?"

"You know about that?"

"Sweetie, the whole wide world knows about it. Don't take it personally, but you make really bad choices when you're drunk. Who goes and cuddles up with Mike Newton when your fiancé is Edward Cullen? Something is definitely wrong in that picture, missy," Leah scolded.

"Just go back to sleep."

"Ha, you wish."

"Yes, I really do."

"Stop being so moody and tell me where you live now," Leah urged.

"I'm not telling you that. I don't want all the guys ending up on my new couch. Not only would that make me very unhappy, because the couch is holy, but also Edward because I don't think he likes people that much. Especially not when they're loud and obnoxious."

"He doesn't like people?" Leah repeated in disbelief.

"Who are loud and obnoxious," I added.

"Then how the hell does he deal with you? You are a handful and pretty childish as well."

"Gee, thanks."

"No prob," Leah replied casually."But seriously, how the hell do you guys get along or did you suddenly grow up since the last time I saw you? Wait...no, otherwise you wouldn't have gotten drunk at a Charity event."

"Leah, could you please stop talking about that?"

"I might... some day."

I groaned in frustration.

Alice and Emmett, who were walking in front of me now, both turned to look at me in wonder.

"Leah, could you please just call Jake and tell him to go home?" I asked in desperation.

Leah snorted on the other end. "I'll see what I can do."

She hung up and I could finally take a deep breath.

"Sounds like you have really lovable friends," Alice noted.

"You have no idea."

"I bet none of them is as awesome as I am," Emmett boomed.

I looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Seriously Emmett, do you mind explaining to me how in the world you managed to become a doctor?" I asked after a few moments of silence, in which Emmett danced awkwardly while singing the word 'awesome'.

He stopped his dancing session and looked at me with a surprised expression on his face.

"Why do you want to know that?"

I sighed.

"Never mind. Just a thought that crossed my mind."

Alice giggled quietly but the sound was drowned out soon, thanks to my ringing phone.

"Leah, please tell me you've got good news for me," I pleaded right away.

"Depends on how you see it."

"That doesn't sound good."

"Again, it depends on how you see it. Jacob can't go back home, which I had known before already, but I did you the favour and asked anyway."

"What? He can't go back home? Why not? Please don't say he's planning on moving here," I whined.

I hadn't realized that we had entered the cafeteria until I got a few stares from the few people sitting there.

I smiled apologetically at them and then hurried to catch up with Emmett and Alice again.

"No worries, he won't move anywhere near Chicago. I don't think that Jacob could ever really stay too far away from his hometown."

I absentmindedly sat down beside Alice.

"How long did he plan to stay?" I asked in horror.

"As far as I know, he's got to leave tomorrow."

"What? Who flies all the way to Chicago only for a day?"

"Apparently Jacob does. He has something to do in New York next week and thought it would be nice to visit you quickly."

"It is not," I grumbled.

"Well, I can't change that. It's just for a day, so I think you'll survive." Leah sighed on the other end.

"Have you at least told him that he's going to the wrong house?"

"I tried, but he didn't believe me. Good luck with that."

"Le-"

The line was already dead and I silently cursed Leah.

"Judging by your expression I would say that you are unhappy," Emmett stated.

Just then the chair next to him moved and Edward suddenly sat on it.

He didn't really look at me, but he acknowledged my presence with a nod.

"What are you doing here, Edward?" Alice asked in wonder.

Edward scowled at her. "Dad forced me to eat something with you guys," he replied, making it sound like it was horrible to sit with us.

"Good. You forget to eat properly with all the work you are doing," Alice answered.

"I do not forget to eat."

"Oh really? Have you had any breakfast?"

Edward looked briefly at me now.

"No, but that wa-"

"You see? You should start eating regularly and healthy. You are a doctor for Christ's sake."

Edward only rolled his eyes as if he had heard it a hundred times before.

"Okay, now that we established Edward's eating habits could we get back to our unhappy Bellsie?" Emmett urged.

"I'm not unhappy," I grumbled," I am angry."

"So you didn't solve your little Jacob situation?"Alice asked.

"Nope. He's still on his way and he's still going to be butchered by my grandmother."

For a brief moment I wondered if it was even a bad thing.

Maybe we could have some real bonding time while tearing Jake apart.

I shuddered at the thought. I was starting to turn into a heartless creature as well.

"Who is Jacob," Edward asked unexpectedly.

I turned my gaze to him and wondered for a moment if I should tell him that Jacob was my ex-boyfriend.

_Do you want to make Edward jealous?_

I scoffed inwardly at the thought. I doubted that Edward would actually be jealous.

Why would he? It's not like he can even stand me.

"He's something you might consider a friend," I answered slowly.

"And an ex-boyfriend," Emmett thundered.

I shot a glare in his direction.

"Your ex-boyfriend is coming to visit you?" Edward asked. His brows were furrowed as if he was thinking really hard about something.

I sighed. "If you want to phrase it that way... then yes."

"And what exactly is the problem? It's not me, is it?"

I looked at him in surprise, while Edward looked something close to concerned

I opened my mouth to reply, but Emmett once again barged into the conversation.

"He's on his way to her parent's house where he will be sliced and diced by her parents and grandmother for screwing around with their little princess."

Emmett looked smug after that revelation and I glared at him once more.

"That is no-"

"And now Bella doesn't know what to do, because his phone is turned off and she can't even tell him her new address," Alice continued.

"Why don't you just drive to the house and pick him up?" Edward asked.

"Oh that is a good idea," Alice squealed, "I'll..."

She was now interrupted by her ringing phone.

"Hey Jazz, how is Italy?" she sang. A second later her happy expression changed into one of disbelief. "What?"

She turned to glare at Emmett, who shrunk back in his chair.

I eyed the two of them in confusion just like Edward did.

"Alright babe, I'll be there to pick you up, okay?"

She hung up and then sent Emmett the meanest glare I had seen so far. It surprised me that Emmett didn't turn into stone yet.

"I'm gonna go and pick Jasper up from the airport, because _someone_ told him to come home immediately."

She got up and gathered her things.

"Err... Alice, you do realize that I don't have my car yet, right?" I asked her when she was about to leave.

"Yes, I know. You'll just have to drive home with Edward."

"Right. Let's just forget about Jacob who's currently on his way to death."

"Oh. Well... you need to figure this out on your own. Au revoir."

And with that she just hurried away.

I groaned and let my head drop on the table.

_Would I be considered guilty in court when it came out that I could have prevented Jacob's murder?_

I stayed still for some time until I heard a jingle of keys and looked up.

Right in front of my face hovered one of Edward's beautiful hands, a set of keys dangling from his finger.

I looked up at him in question.

His expression gave nothing away.

"You can have my car. I'm going to be in the hospital for another few hours," he said, still holding out the keys.

I couldn't exactly place the look he gave me, but at the same time I didn't really care.

"And how will you get home or should I come back here?"

"I'll just have Emmett drop me off at the apartment," he said giving Emmett a sharp look, who shrugged in response.

"Are you sure?" I asked carefully, not really wanting him to do something he would regret later on.

"Would I be suggesting this if I wasn't?" he shot back sounding a little annoyed.

"How would I know? Maybe insanity is infectious," I mumbled.

A quiet chuckle left Edward's mouth and I smiled involuntarily at the sound. It was too beautiful for his own good.

"I'm pretty positive that I am still sane and I trust that you will get my car back in one piece."

The amused glint in his eyes was quickly replaced by a stern look in his eyes.

_As long as Jared is not with Jacob the car should be safe... although then again, letting Jake into the car is a risk as well..._

"I guess I'll just have to skip the hardcore street race then," I sighed jokingly.

Edward rolled his eyes and I was pretty sure I saw a small smile on his face, before he dropped the keys into my palm.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Edward stroked over the hood of his silver Volvo.

It still looked like a car that a soccer mom would drive, but somehow I found myself already getting used to it.

"Should I leave the two of you alone," I asked sarcastically, when I saw how Edward caressed his car.

He pulled a grimace at me.

"Just try to drive carefully," he said and stepped back while I opened the door.

"No worries, my driving is way better than Alice's," I reassured him as I got into the car.

Edward watched like a worried mother as I turned the keys in the ignition and I thought I even saw him wave when I carefully pulled out of the parking spot.

_You'd think he's engaged to the car and not me._

While I made my way through the streets of Chicago – driving as fast and carefully as I could – I caught myself a few times, sniffing the air in the car, enjoying the scent of Edward that obviously lingered in his car.

Was it weird that I felt attracted to his scent?

_Not to forget his hands and his laugh._

I sighed. I had to keep myself in check otherwise I would be jumping Edward sometime in the future.

_Those hands are probably magical..._

I hit my head against the steering wheel to rid myself of any images that involved naked skin, kissing, licking and Edward's hands.

Of course, it didn't help and so I spent the following minutes with non PG-rated thoughts.

Just when my imagination involved Edward's lips into the equation, I almost drove past my former home.

I made an abrupt U-turn and then waited patiently in front of the gates that closed the property.

The guard hurried towards the car and I let the window down sending him a dazzling smile.

"Ah Ms. Swan, I didn't know that you had a new car," the guard said when he recognized me.

"Oh, I don't. It's my fiancé's car," I replied, secretly hoping that this little piece of information would make its way through the house and pleased my family enough to stay off my back for as long as possible.

"Has anyone arrived who wanted to see me?" I continued, looking around in search of a sign that Jacob had been here.

"Oh yes. A certain Mr. Black has just arrived and asked if you were here. I told him that you no longer live here. He only laughed and said he would go for a walk and would be back in a few minutes."

I shook my head at Jake's idiocy.

"Alright, I'll wait here for him. Thank you."

The guard nodded his head and then went back to his post.

Since I had to wait in the car now, I took the time to inspect the inside properly.

I turned on the stereo and was immediately met with the sounds of Debussy.

Clair de Lune.

I smiled when I recognized the song.

Although I didn't listen to classical music often, I did have quite a few favourites that I liked to hear and Debussy was one of them.

_Well, well... the fiancé has a good taste in music..._

I opened the glove department, hoping to find something else that told me something about Edward, like maybe a few more CD's.

There was in fact a stack of CD's in there and just when I took it out a few granola bars fell out.

Either he likes granola bars a lot or he just ate the stuff, because he didn't eat properly throughout the day.

I looked through his music collection and noticed that he seemed to listen a lot to classical music.

I grinned to myself when I found a CD of the Plain White T's.

So there was hope for Edward after all.

A knock on the window suddenly pulled me out of my thoughts and almost caused my heart to stop beating.

I looked up and looked straight into the eyes of Jacob Black.

I stared at him for a few seconds before I reluctantly rolled the window down.

"Get in," I growled at him.

Jacob's eyes widened and he stared for a moment before he sprang into action and hurried to get into the passenger's seat.

I let the engine roar to life and sped out of the street.

"Nice to see you too, Bells," Jake said sarcastically after a few more moments of silence.

I didn't answer him.

"So where are we going?" he continued.

"You know, next time when you plan to visit me, you could call me beforehand and you should start listening when people tell you that I have a new address," I hissed through clenched teeth.

"You really did move out?" Jake asked in wonder.

"Of course I did. Did you really think that I animated Leah and our guard to lie for me?" I snapped at him.

"Umm...yes. That is something you would do, just to fool me."

I thought about it for a moment and realized that he was right.

Back in college I had spent lots of energy playing tricks on Jacob.

"Maybe," I allowed.

I couldn't hide the hint of a smile that was tugging on my lips.

"Any reason why you don't want me in your parents' house?"

I detected the slightest hint of hurt in his voice.

I let out a humourless snort. "Not even I want myself in that house, so don't take it personally. I just saved your life – be grateful."

"Aww, does that mean you care about me?" Jake cooed.

"Yes, I care about you," I answered and smiled sweetly at him, "About as much as I care about the pet of my dog."

"Your dog has its own pet?"

"No. I don't even have a dog, but if I had one I would allow it to keep you as a pet."

"Well, I can see that you still love me as much as you did before."

"Which would be not even little a bit."

Jake sighed. "Just admit it that you love me. After all, we used to be pretty close," he waggled his eyebrows at that, "Whatever happened to that?"

"Oh there was this one day when I was walking on the street when I suddenly found my taste in men and picked it up. That is exactly what happened."

"Very funny," Jacob replied, causing me to giggle after I failed to keep a straight face.

"Aw, come on. You know that I love you like the little puppy that I never wanted."

Jake rolled his eyes but grinned anyway.

Our friendship had always been weird.

He got on my nerves to no extent and I would make sure to let him know how much he annoyed me. I had no idea how this friendship worked out, but it did.

"Alright, Bells. I've got a Nintendo Wii with me, a six-pack and as many chips as I could fit into the bag together with the important stuff." Jake pointed at the bag he had manoeuvred on the backseat earlier.

"Sounds like a teeny-birthday," I commented.

"Sounds to me like we are going to rock your new apartment," Jake shot back and barked out a laugh.

I bit my lip nervously.

Apart from Leah none of my friends knew about the fact that I had been engaged ever since birth.

Luckily, none of them read stupid magazines like Glitz and Goss otherwise I would have some explaining to do now.

For now I was only stuck with explaining to Jake of all people that I was engaged.

It was the perfect thing to end a perfectly crappy day. Even though Jake and I were something like close friends and got along about as well as two siblings would, I knew for a fact that Jake had a soft spot for me.

He had never really gotten rid of his little infatuation which had bothered me on many occasions but never as much as it did now.

Explaining to him that I did not really move out from home, but moved together with my fiancé was going to be a real bitch. I just hoped that Edward would take his time to return home, because I wasn't ready to share the news just yet.

"By the way, mind explaining to me since when you drive a Volvo and a silver one at that?"

"What, should I be driving a pink Volvo?" I quirked an eyebrow at him.

"You know what I mean," Jake replied, "Since when do you drive a mommy's car?"

"Since it isn't my car. I'm just driving it because I had to pick up a certain idiot who was about to visit my grandmother."

"So this car belongs to a friend of yours?"

I sighed and thought about it for a moment. "He's not really a friend of mine, more like a part of the family."

"He? A guy drives this car? Is he gay?" Jake broke into laughter

"Hey, don't insult the Volvo. Not everybody can be driving noisy trucks like you do," I shot back at him.

Jake only rolled his eyes at that and continued chuckling.

"Instead of picking on other people's cars you could just tell me how everyone is. It's almost been a year since I have seen any of you."

Jacob leaned back in his seat.

"Oh you know. Same old, same old. Sam and Leah are still in their weird on-off relationship, although Sam is starting to notice Leah's cousin Emily now."

I groaned at that. The countless break ups of Sam and Leah had always driven me insane.

"Jared lost his driver's license after he was caught in a street race," Jake continued.

"Are you serious?" I asked him in disbelief already giggling madly.

"Doesn't get more serious. Dude is now always asking me for a lift."

"Wow, never thought that would happen," I murmured.

"Ha, I totally saw that one coming. The guy can't drive to save his life."

I continued to laugh quietly and shook my head.

Jake told me just about everything there was to tell about the rest of our friends until we arrived at my new home.

"Whoa, this is where you live?" Jacob asked me.

"Don't say anything until you have seen the inside," I replied with a chuckle as I led the way in.

I greeted Micah when we passed him on our way to the elevator, while Jacob was looking around like a kid in Disney Land.

"Seriously Jake, stop acting like a cave man in Las Vegas," I said to him once we were in the elevator and he had stared at my key in awe.

"Easy for you to say – you live here," he retorted.

I only rolled my eyes in response and leaned back until the elevator doors opened.

Jake dashed out like a curious little puppy; all that had been missing in this image was the tail.

I laughed quietly to myself and followed him into the living room where he threw himself on the couch.

"Fuck the guest room, I'm crashing here," Jake announced happily and opened his back to start unpacking.

"You're not really planning on staying the night, right?" I asked Jacob in panic.

"Umm...yes. That's what friends are for, right?" He looked at me as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh great," I muttered.

"Is that a problem?"

"That depends on how fond Edward is of dogs. I think he's more of a cat person."

I said the words without thinking and then immediately scolded myself.

"You live together with the Volvo driver?"Jake asked and went into hysterics when I nodded.

I didn't see the joke in the whole thing, so I just stood there and watched Jake doubling over.

"This is awesome. You have a gay roommate. I bet you two are always watching romantic comedies together and do each other's hair."

"Jake this is not nearly as funny as you think it is," I told him and then left him to continue his hyena impersonation and went into the kitchen to find something edible in there.

I inspected every inch of the kitchen and came soon to the conclusion that I found my heaven on earth.

I had already been thrilled when I saw the circle form of the kitchen with the counter in the middle, but now that I saw the glasses hanging above the kitchen counter and the super high- tech fridge along with the best kitchen utilities money could buy, I was definitely having a hard time leaving the kitchen.

It occurred to me that I actually had it all to myself, since I doubted that Edward could cook and it made me strangely ecstatic to test out my cooking skills without Laurent giving me instructions all the time.

I even found a few recipe books and promptly looked through each of them.

"Hey Bells, I'm starving. I hope you are cooking in there," I heard Jacob call and then he entered the kitchen.

He snatched the book out of my hands and looked at the page that I have been reading.

"Gourmet Mushroom Risotto? Sounds delicious, you should totally make that," he suggested.

"I would if there was any food in this kitchen," I grumbled.

It was true, the kitchen might have been filled with incredible tools but there was no trace of actual food in here. Just a few basic things so that nobody has to starve, but nothing that I needed to cook an actual dinner and that was what I intended to do.

Not for Jacob though – he would even be happy with simple pasta – but I thought that it would be a nice idea to cook for Edward.

After all I had yet to thank him properly for letting me drive his car and somehow Alice had led me to the conclusion that he was not eating properly.

It would also be a great opportunity to let him know that Jacob planned on spending the night and if everything went just great then I should be able to drop the Engagement bomb on Jacob.

I smiled blissfully at my perfect plan and Jacob had to wave his hand in front of my face to pull me back into reality.

"What?"

"I said that you can go and do some grocery shopping while I wait here and get acquainted to this place," Jake said and looked a little too excited at this idea.

"And why exactly should I let you stay here all by yourself? Next thing you know, you'll set the whole place on fire."

Jacob shook his head. "I'm not a little child, you know. Plus, do you really want me to be in your hair while you are shopping?"

He knew that I didn't like it when he got on my nerves while I was concentrating on food and I especially despised company while I went grocery shopping. The only person I ever went with was Laurent, because he would always tell me about the dish he was planning and told me a lot about the ingredients and how they are prepared properly.

Laurent was like a kitchen god.

I sighed when I realized that Jacob was right and he already cheered, knowing that he had won. For some reason I just knew that I was going to regret this later on.

"Alright, I'll be back soon and please don't do anything stupid while you are gone. No loud music, no fire, no running around without pants on and don't get any junk on my couch."

"Jeez, how old do you think I am? Seven?" Jake complained.

"Actually, I was thinking five," I replied and quickly got something to write and copied the ingredients list.

"I promise that I will not set the house on fire, but I can't promise you that I will leave my pants on."

"You know what? That's actually good enough for me, because if Edward is coming home early and Emmett decides to come up with him, then he will make Mushroom Risotto out of you."

"I'm sure I can take him," Jake replied."

I quirked an eyebrow at him but said nothing more, because I had to get the shopping done fast.

"Just don't do anything too stupid," I called over my shoulder and then rushed out of the apartment.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"Dinner? Seriously, you're inviting us for dinner?" Alice asked for the third time.

"Yes, Alice. Is that really that unbelievable or are dinner invitations a foreign thing to you?"

I held my phone awkwardly between my shoulder and my ear, while I stuffed the groceries into the trunk. I had bought way more than I intended to which resulted in my thinking that it might be a good idea to invite the rest of the Cullen clan.

"I just wanted to be sure that it's not a trap to lure me in and kill me just because I took off earlier today," Alice replied, "By the way, is your friend still alive?"

"Yes, he's alive and well and he's currently in the apartment all by himself which is hopefully not going to end in a disaster."

"How did you manage saving him without me?"

I scowled even if Alice couldn't see it through the phone.

"You make it sound as if I am dependent on you. Edward lent me his car, so I went to get that idiot myself."

"He...what?"

I dropped the phone and cursed silently. How someone could speak at such inhuman volumes was a miracle to me.

I didn't even need to pick my phone back up to hear Alice's voice.

"He allowed you to drive his car? He doesn't let anyone drive his Volvo. He always said that he would have to die before any of us would be allowed behind the wheel of his car."

With a sigh I bent down to retrieve my phone.

"It doesn't really surprise me, because your driving is horrible. I wouldn't even let you drive my toy car."

"My driving is perfect, right Jazzy?"

I heard an agreeing hum in the background although it didn't sound very convincing to me.

"See? It's not my driving. What did you do to make him change his mind?"

"I got down on my knees," I replied sarcastically as I got into the car.

"Are you in his car right now?"

"Yup."

I heard a sigh on the other end. "Alright, Bella. We'll be at your place in two hours and then you'd better be telling me how you got Edward to let you drive his car."

With these words said she hung up.

I could do nothing more than shake my head at Alice.

I drove back home quickly, listening to Debussy all the while.

When I finally stepped into my apartment, I was beyond relieved that it was still there.

"I'm back," I called loudly and resumed carrying the groceries into the kitchen.

When I passed through the living room I saw Jake sitting on the couch, watching TV with his pants still on.

"Wow, I'm impressed. I would have thought that I'd need to call the police or something," I joked.

"I told you that I'm not a fucking kid. You better be cooking an awesome meal now to reward me for being such a grown up person."

"Just so that you know, I invited Edward's siblings for dinner so it's not going to be all for you," I called to him, already unpacking.

"But I don't want to share."

"I'm the host of this party, so when I say that you'll have to share you do exactly as I say," I shot back.

"Yes, ma'am."

I got to work right away and felt completely relaxed. I had taken Edward's CD out of his car and put it on in the stereo that had been hidden in a secret hatch in the wall right beneath the TV.

While I chopped and diced away Debussy's beautiful melodies filled the kitchen while Jacob was strangely quiet in the living room.

It seemed like the TV was having a calming effect on him.

It shouldn't have surprised me though that the peacefulness was not meant to last forever.

I just pulled the chocolate dessert lasagne out of the oven to let it cool and was about to put the chicken in when suddenly the lights went off.

I shut the oven door and put the lasagne down and waited for a moment.

"Jake, why are the lights off?" I asked loudly.

"How would I know, this is your place not mine," he replied, sounding like he was in the kitchen now as well.

"Ugh, that is just great. Why the fuck is this whole day such a fucking mess? As if it wasn't enough that I had a fainting marathon today," I muttered and fished my phone out of my pocket.

Hopefully Alice knew where the fuse box was.

"Oh, hey Bella. We're almost at your apartment. We'll be there in two minutes or so," Alice babbled right away when she picked up the phone.

"Alice, the lights went off in here," I informed her, completely ignoring her words.

"Oh. Does that mean we shouldn't come over for dinner then?" She actually sounded a little sad about that. I sighed before I spoke.

"No, it means that you should tell me where the fuse box is otherwise you will have to eat raw chicken."

I vaguely noticed a sound coming from somewhere behind me, but I discarded it immediately, knowing that Jake was somewhere around.

"Hmm...If I remember correctly it should be in the shoe closet. You'll just have to climb on the little stool."

"Alright, thanks Alice."

I hung up and used the weak light of my phone to move through the apartment.

"Jake, wherever you are stay there and don't touch anything."

"Sure, sure."

I quietly moved into the entrance hall and crept over to the shoe closet. I didn't know why I always had the natural urge to creep around once it was dark.

The light of my phone went off, but that didn't matter in that moment.

I carefully made my way to where the little stool was supposed to be and when I found it in the dark I quickly stepped on it.

Now if this day had been a perfectly normal day with perfectly normal people around me, I would have just gotten on that stool, turned the light of my phone back on and get the lights working again.

But since this was my life and everything always had to suck in it, it did not go like that.

I stepped onto the stool and just as I made it up I collided with a solid body.

Instinctively I reached out and grabbed a hold of whoever was standing next to me in the dark which prevented me from falling down.

"Jesus, don't scare me like that," I heard Edward's velvety voice hiss.

That definitely caught me off guard.

"Edward?" I whispered, although I had no reason to whisper.

"Isabella?" he asked back before he continued," What are you doing?"

Now that my eyes got adjusted to the dark I could make out a few of his features.

"Well, I'm here to get the light back on but what are you doing here? Since when are you at home?"

"I just got in and saw that the lights were off. Would you please get down so I can switch the lights back on?"

"I think I dropped my phone," I noted.

"Err...how is your phone relevant to this situation?"

"I need light and so do you by the way."

"Well, if you would just let go of me and make some space, then I would be able to reach my phone," Edward replied and tried to get me away from him.

That almost caused me to fall and I clawed my hands into the fabric of his shirt.

"Are you trying to kill me?" I hissed at him, my heart beating madly.

"It's just a tiny stool, it would hardly kill you," Edward mumbled.

"That's what you say. After this day, I will not rule the possibility out," I shot back at him.

"Isabella, could you _please _just get down?"

"Why me and not you?"

"I don't think that this is really something we should discuss right now. If it makes you feel better, I can get down as well, but you would have to let go off me first."

Edward moved again, trying to free himself from my hands.

I yanked him back.

"No, you can take care of this. I was just wondering."

Carefully, I tried to step down but unfortunately the sudden sound of a door opening startled me and I managed it somehow to fall.

To make matters worse, I took Edward with me since I hadn't let go of him. So the two of us hit the floor with a loud thud. Or more accurately, I hit the floor with a loud thud, Edward landed on top me.

I hissed in pain when Edward's heavy body landed on mine, causing every ounce of air to leave my lungs and squeezing my boobs. And yet there was something strangely comfortable about it.

"Ugh, Isa-"

Edward tried to move out of the tangled mess that we were, but did the mistake to move his head to the right just when I moved mine as well.

I had never known that it was possible to kiss a person accidently until I suddenly felt Edward's lips on mine.

A strange electrical jolt went through my body and I froze immediately.

I felt how Edward's muscles locked in place as well.

Neither of us moved and I didn't know if that was because we were both in shock or because we were both in shock.

Just then I heard the door open and light flooded the tiny space in which Edward and I were currently laying on the floor, kissing.

Edward jumped up right away and I turned my head as much as I could to see who had opened the door.

Emmett had a wide grin on his face while his eyes darted back and forth between me and Edward. Alice had her lips pressed tightly together, while Jasper looked at us with a confused expression.

When my eyes found Jacob I was pretty sure that he was giving me the death glare.

_Death, come and get me..._

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><p><strong><em>AN:_**** Ah yes, isn't that a wonderful ending for this chapter?**

**Love? Like? Hate? Tell me, tell me, tell me! **

**I'm not up for much rambling today, so I'm just gonna peace out and wait patiently for your reviews ;)**


	7. Chapter 7

**_A/N:_ Okay, so I got a lot of reviews the last time telling me I should update faster. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to do just that. With all kinds of things coming up at the same time, I just didn't get to type as much as I wanted to and I wasn't even able to concentrate on writing... I'm sorry to have let you wait that long, but I promise that I'll try to update more often.**

**So here's the chapter that all of you have been waiting for and I hope guys can forgive me whilst reading it ;)**

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><p><em>Bella POV<em>

"So you got down on your knees, huh?" Alice asked stepping into the kitchen right after I had fled the scene and searched for shelter in there.

"What?"

"When were you going to tell me that Edward and you were _that_ close? No wonder he never let me drive his car, obviously I am not in the right _position _for that," she continued with a mischievous grin.

I looked at her trying to figure out what she was getting at.

"You know, it's pretty unfair. I was really worried about you this morning and thought that the two of you didn't get along, but in reality you guys have been getting your freak on already. I thought you would tell me if that happened?"

"Do you honestly want me to tell you how it is to get it on with your brother?" I asked in disbelief.

"Oh my gosh, you guys seriously have done it already! How could you do this to me?" Alice screeched immediately.

"Alice, I don't know what the fuck you are talking about bu-"

"I'm out, alright?" the voice of Jacob barged in.

I looked up to find him the door frame with his bag thrown over his shoulder and a blank expression on his face.

"You're leaving?"

This whole situation was definitely too much for me. I had to shake my head before I managed to think somewhat clearly.

"Why are you leaving?" I pressed.

Jake's expression turned bitter and I had a feeling that his little crush might have been more than just that.

"Don't wanna disturb you and Edward. Hate to be a bother," he pressed out through clenched teeth.

"What? You're not a bother...well, you are, but you're not really disturbing anyone here. The only ones that are disturbing anything is Alice and Emmett and they are probably not gonna survive this evening if they can't keep their mouths shut."

"Bella, you just moved in here with your new boyfriend and I really don't want to be in the middle of that," Jake said and turned to walk away.

"Wait! He's not even my boyfriend," I shouted and walked up to him to pull him back, "He's just my fiancé but we're-"

"He is your...what?" Jacob roared.

I flinched back and cursed for not keeping myself in check.

"Bella, I always knew that you are pretty reckless but that is the most stupid thing I have ever heard. How long have you known this guy? How do you know that he's the right guy for you? He could be some kind of psychopath and you wouldn't know. I could give you so much more than this sleazy-"

"Since when is this about you?" I asked in exasperation.

"It's not about me. I'm just telling you what would be better for you," Jake argued.

"Umm...I'm just gonna go and...check on Edward," Alice muttered awkwardly and tiptoed out of the kitchen. I didn't pay any further attention to that.

Instead I let out a frustrated groan.

"Don't you think that it's enough that I have a family who always tells me what's best for me? It's not about you and your little crush, it's-"

"My little crush?" he asked, now getting seriously worked up, "My little crush? God, Bella! I've been _in love_ with you since forever."

I stared at him and opened my mouth only to close it again a second later.

I didn't really know what to respond to that.

After another moment of silence I rediscovered my voice.

"Jake, we were just kids back then...and it had never been anything serious."

"It had been serious to me," Jake insisted.

I sighed and started to play my hair.

"Well…technically I had already been engaged back then, so there had never really been the possibility of us becoming something more..." I said slowly, not really wanting to say those words.

But at some point the truth had to get out and it was better to do it now, seeing that things couldn't get much worse now.

Now it was Jacob's turn to stare at me with his mouth hanging open.

"You...already engaged...at 18?"

"Err...yes, I think. I'm not sure if that was a question..."

"You have been engaged at 18 years old?" Jake's voice started to get louder.

"Yeah...we had our 18th anniversary that year."

I looked up and looked straight at Edward who was leaning against the couch in the living room, staring at the back of Jacob's head with a displeased expression.

Our gazes met for a brief moment and I wondered what he was thinking about when he looked at me.

The feeling of his lips on mine came to my mind immediately, causing me to shudder.

I still wasn't sure if I hadn't moved because I had been shocked or if I simply didn't want to.

Until that little incident, I had never thought much about the fact that Edward and I had to be physical at some point of our relationship. I wasn't too sure whether this was a good thing or bad.

"You have been engaged all your life?" Jacob whispered making his question sound more like a fact.

I tore my gaze away from Edward, who now turned his attention to the approaching Emmett anyway.

"Pretty much," I answered Jacob slowly.

"Why do I only hear of this now?"

I sighed and smiled ruefully. I knew that everyone had a shitty day every once in a while, but this day was definitely going to make history – being the shittiest of them all.

"I wanted to be normal just like everyone else," I whispered.

"Normal? Bella, you are a member of an Italian aristocratic family. There is nothing normal about that."

"I know that. I just...well, I wanted to know what it was to be like any other teenager. I tried to be normal. I went to college; I made friends, had a boyfriend and graduated."

"So this was all for your entertainment? For you to see how the mere mortals are living life, so you can go and shag up with your fiancé later, laughing together with him at how foolish everyone else is?"

_Why was he so dead set on making this sound like I was a bad person?_

"You know what, Jacob? Maybe you really should go, because I'm not really in the mood to listen to your accusations."

"Fine, I'm going then."

"Great."

I crossed my arms and quirked an eyebrow arrogantly at him.

Jacob narrowed his eyes at me and it seemed like he was trying to stall his departure.

_Figures...he doesn't even want to leave..._

"I don't have to show you the door, do I?" I asked him.

I saw a glint of anger in his eyes, before he turned abruptly in the door way and stormed off.

I might have felt the smallest amount of guilt, but I was able to ignore it.

I mean, who does he think he is? He can't just make stupid assumptions and be angry at me because of things he thought I'd done.

And above it all, he thought that this was about him and me.

He should have known ever since I told him that I didn't really return his feelings that I didn't really return his feelings and should have moved on.

I sighed and turned my attention to the dinner that I had started to prepare but never got to finish.

A mere five seconds later I let out a frustrated scream and let myself slide down to the kitchen floor.

There was no way that I was preparing something decent while I was this worked up.

With thousands of emotions whirling around inside of me, I sat on the kitchen floor with my face hidden in my hands.

I had to get a grip on myself. Taking a few deep breaths, I got up again and calmed down a bit.

"Is everything alright with you?"

I turned around and saw Jasper standing in the door way.

I smiled weakly at him and nodded.

"Sure. No need to worry about me," I replied, hopefully sounding as nonchalantly as I wanted to.

"Are you sure?" Jasper narrowed his eyes at me slightly.

"Of course. Why else would I say it then?"

Jasper didn't reply. Instead he held up a little plastic bag.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Well, it's nothing much really. I only grabbed it at the airport- so it's nothing to special. You don't even have to take it, I ju-"

"Just give it to me," I demanded with a sigh.

Jasper's mouth twitched lightly and he stepped closer to hand the bag over.

Inside was something that was wrapped in newspaper. My first guess was that it was a cup, but when I took in the size of that thing, I decided that it was not possible.

I unwrapped it and held a bog coffee mug in my hands. It was definitely too big to be used in the morning for the wake-up coffee. Otherwise, I'd end up being as hyper as Alice for the rest of the day.

I briefly wondered if she had a coffee mug like this at home as well. It would explain so many things.

I inspected the cup and smiled. It had the Italian flag on it and something written beneath it. Reading the words, I started to giggle.

"What's the joke?" Jasper asked.

My giggle turned into a full blown laugh.

"W-where did you get that thing?"

"Like I said, at the airport."

"In which country?"

"Italy."

"Liar."

Jasper looked at me for a moment before he held up his hands in surrender.

"Alright, alright. I bought it here in America. I really was in Italy though; I just didn't get to buy you anything there, because I thought there was an urgent emergency."

I stopped laughing and looked at Jasper in surprise.

"You came all the way from Italy, because Emmett called you earlier today?"

"Umm...yes?"

"Why?"

"Well...because Emmett called and made it sound like you were having some kind of problem."

I gaped at him.

"So you flew half across the globe just because you thought I needed help?"

"Err...yes. What are you getting at?"

I just continued to stare at him.

First Rosalie and now Jasper. At least Rosalie had been informed that it was a false alarm otherwise I really would have to feel bad.

All of them barely even knew me and yet they already acted like I was a solid part of their family.

Well, Edward not so much although he had freaked out somewhat in the morning when he cut me.

I felt how my eyes began to water. Why I was being so emotional was unbeknownst to me, but I couldn't help it.

"Bella, are you crying?" Jasper sounded alarmed.

I shook my head and wiped away the single tear that had escaped.

"Of course, you are. Why in the world are you crying? Did I do something? Is it the cup? If you don't like it-"

"Why are you being so nice to me? Not only you but all of you," I asked him quietly.

Jasper frowned. "Why shouldn't we? Do you prefer to be bullied around? We can arrange that, you know."

"No, no. I was just...wondering. You hardly even know me and yet you treat me like I'm...like I'm..."

"A part of this family?" Jasper ended for me.

I nodded.

He put his arm around my shoulder.

"It might have to do with the fact that you are a member of this family now."

"Yeah, but we've only known each other for a couple of days. I haven't done anything really to deserve this kind of treatment. If anything all of you should hate me for making you look bad at the charity event."

"You made a mistake. We all make them. That's no reason to hate someone. You have always been a part of the family. When I got to meet Alice's family, you were introduced to me as well. Well, not really but Alice made sure to show me some pictures of you. You should ask Rose how she was told that you were Edward's fiancé. You might like that story."

I didn't know how to respond to that so I just kept my mouth closed.

"Are you going to tell me what's so funny about the thing?" Jasper asked then, pointing at the coffee mug in my hands.

I looked at it again and grinned.

"It says 'Viva la Vida' and has the Italian flag on it. But that phrase is Spanish," I explained swiftly.

Jasper looked at me and then chuckled.

"Maybe I should get you something else then."

"You shouldn't have gotten me anything, but I will keep the thing anyways. I like it," I replied and put it away in one of the cupboards.

Jasper shrugged.

"How would the phrase have been in Italian?" he asked casually.

"Vivi la vita."

Jasper nodded to himself before he turned to leave the kitchen. He was almost out the door when he whirled around.

"I almost forgot to ask you...when is the food going to be ready?"

I rolled my eyes at him.

"Just a few more minutes. You could set the table already."

He walked out of the kitchen and I heard him call Alice, telling her that I needed help with setting the table.

I giggled quietly to myself and pulled out the plates.

"Is it already time to eat?" Alice asked as she waltzed into the kitchen.

"Almost." I handed her the plates.

Alice grinned and skipped out of the kitchen again.

10 minutes later we were all seated at the table.

I tried to avoid looking at Edward, which proved to be difficult since Alice had somehow arranged for me to have Edward sitting right across from me.

"I swear, I don't know anybody who can cook better than you do, Bella," Emmett said, while he munched happily.

"I don't know about that," I mumbled.

I was just shoving the food on my plate around, occasionally taking a bite.

"I agree with Emmett," Jasper spoke.

A weak smile spread on my face.

"You'd have to meet Laurent then. He's by far the best cook in the entire world," I told them.

"Who's Laurent?"

"The cook at my parents' house."

"Oh gosh, I almost forgot," Alice whispered to herself.

"Forgot what?"

"I forgot to tell him about the wedding theme. I wanted him to somehow create a menu that goes along with the overall setting," Alice explained swiftly.

I didn't respond to that.

Instead my eyes flickered over to Edward. I had actually intended to redirect my gaze right away, but when our eyes met, I was not able to look away.

I didn't know what it was but something about the way he looked back at me made me feel all tingly inside.

I licked my lips involuntarily and I thought I saw Edward's eyes widen for a second. I had a pretty good guess what he was thinking about.

"So Bella, what are you going to do tomorrow?" Alice asked then, regaining my attention.

When I turned to look at her, I noticed the little grin on her face as her eyes darted back and forth between Edward and I.

"Umm...I don't know yet. Isn't my car supposed to be ready tomorrow?"

"Oh yes. Edward do you think you can drop Bella off tomorrow morning?"

All eyes shifted towards Edward, who looked at his sister with a calculating expression.

Alice looked back at him and for a moment I thought they were having some kind of mental battle.

Eventually, Edward shrugged.

"Sure, why not? But I'm gonna leave early."

His last words were directed at me.

I just shrugged at his words and stared down at my plate.

For a few moments it was quiet at the table again. Some weird kind of tension was in the air.

I was pretty sure that I was not the only one who felt it.

Just then I heard my phone ring. Frowning, I fished the little thing out of my pocket.

I didn't recognize the number but excused myself from the table all the same.

"Hello?"

"Alright, princess bride. I need you tomorrow at noon in the workshop. I don't care if you have any meetings or whatever – you are going to be there. We don't have much time and the others are probably going to steal you away from me," the voice on the other end immediately started to blabber.

I was a little dumbstruck for a moment.

"Err...who is this?" I asked carefully.

A sharp intake of breath followed my words.

"You don't remember me?" the voice on the other end whined.

"Should I?" I was beyond confused. The voice sounded familiar but I couldn't bring myself to remember. After all that has been going on today, I was actually quite content that I could still remember my own name.

"And here I thought we had something special," the voice sniffed. "It's Jean. You know...the one who's going to make the most fabulous wedding dress ever for you?

"Oh...yeah," I replied lamely, finally remembering to whom this voice belonged.

"Wow, aren't you an enthusiastic one," Jean commented dryly.

I didn't say anything to that.

Jean let out an exaggerated sigh and continued, "Well, unless you have forgotten where the workshop is, I'm expecting you there tomorrow at noon. No lunch for you, I can't work with blown up stomachs."

"Uhh..." I was trying to respond somehow but I didn't even have anything to say.

"I'll see you tomorrow then. Toodles."

He just hung up, leaving me to stare at my phone for a few moments.

With a sigh I returned to the table, where the tension had somewhat lessened and I wondered briefly if I was the reason for the uncomfortable silence.

"Hey Alice, are you going to be at your workshop tomorrow?" I asked as I took my seat again.

Alice looked thoughtful for a moment before she answered, "I don't think so. Why are you asking?"

"I was just wondering because I just got a call from Jean, ordering me to be there tomorrow at noon."

Alice frowned. "Why did he order you to the workshop?"

I quirked an eyebrow at her. For a hardcore wedding planner this was definitely a disappointment. She should know these things before I did.

Alice also seemed to notice that and smacked herself on her forehead.

"Oh man, I totally forgot that we had a competition going on."

"A competition?" Edward asked in wonder.

Alice bobbed her head. "Apparently, all of my workers want to design Bella's wedding dress and since we couldn't get to an agreement we decided to compete against each other."

"You really bring out the strangest in people, don't you?" Emmett asked me, snickering.

"It seems like it," I replied with a shrug.

"Does the wedding even have a theme yet?" Edward asked.

"Yes," I answered and made a dramatic hand gesture, "Under the sea."

He looked at me for a moment with a funny expression before he asked, "The little mermaid?"

Jasper and Emmett immediately snorted at that.

"No," Alice shrieked, "Not the little mermaid. Seriously, why does everybody say that?"

"You know, I already had a feeling that you would come up with something like Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo or something along those lines but I had hoped that you still had enough common sense to realize that you are not planning a Disney Princess party," Edward continued, completely ignoring her.

I wasn't completely sure whether or not he was joking, but seeing that Jasper and Emmett continued to laugh I assumed that he was.

_So many surprises in only one day..._

The rest of dinner was spent with Alice trying to explain that her theme idea had absolutely nothing to do with mermaids while Edward kept making Disney references.

At the same time Emmett and Jasper were taking on the part of the laughing audience like the ones on these old TV-shows.

I joined them every now and them enjoying the banter between Alice and Edward.

He seemed to be a little less tense than I usually saw him. Then again, I hadn't even seen that much of him.

"Dinner was wonderful, Bella. You should cook for us more often," Alice gushed, hugging me tightly.

"I'm afraid if I do that, Emmett will never leave this place again."

"Psh, of course not. I'd move in and make myself comfortable in your guest room for the rest of your existence," Emmett replied, prying me out of Alice's hug so he could squeeze me.

"Emmett...Air," I gasped out after a few seconds.

"Oh, sorry." He put me down carefully and ruffled through my hair.

"Take care of yourself, alright?"

I nodded.

Jasper appeared at my side and put an arm around me.

"You should get to bed right away. The day has been more than exhausting," he said to me.

Again, I just nodded.

Jasper grinned and placed a kiss on my cheek.

"Ciao Bella," he said, getting into the elevator along with Emmett and Alice.

I giggled. "Ciao Bello," I replied waving as the doors closed.

And then it was Edward and me alone again.

Yesterday, it had been weird to be left alone with him in this apartment. Today, it was agonizing

We might have bonded a little today, but at the same time we also managed to get things all weird again. And I'm not just talking about the kiss.

I wondered briefly if I had ever had a single normal encounter with Edward.

While I was in my thoughtful haze, I didn't notice that I was wandering into the kitchen until I stood in front of the sink.

I guess my subconscious doesn't allow me to go to bed without washing the dishes first.

Taking in the tower of dishes that had to be washed, I sighed before I turned on the stereo to fill the kitchen once again with the wonderful sounds of Debussy.

Why we had an ultra-modern kitchen without a dishwasher was beyond me, but I got to work anyway knowing that there was absolutely no way that I would do the dishes tomorrow.

While I was washing away plates and such, I relived the day again.

There was the accident this morning with me passing out at the sight of my own blood.

_Somewhat embarrassing..._

Then I had to endure Alice in shopping mode again combined with her horrid driving skills.

_I've never given much thought to how I would die, but Alice's driving made me wonder if I was going to end as a victim in a car accident. Alice would most likely walk away from the scene without a scratch- despite the fact that she'd wrap her car around a tree trunk like a pretzel._

Then there had been the whole Hospital disaster with me fainting another couple of times.

_I will never ever forget those chirping stars..._

And then Jacob, the dog just had to announce his arrival.

I didn't even want to think any further than that, because this was already more than enough for me to relive.

Not even my wedding day would be that horrible and excruciating. I knew that for sure.

"Do you need help?"

I jumped at the sudden sound of Edward's voice; causing me to drop the plate I held in my hands splattering water all over the place.

Edward appeared beside me with a dishtowel.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," he mumbled and started drying the dishes.

He hadn't even waited for me to respond to his question. Maybe I didn't need his help.

_That's a lie. You want to get to bed as fast as possible._

Well then, maybe I didn't want his help.

_That's also a lie. You are starting to get curious about him..._

Stupid inner voice. Wasn't there a switch to shut it up somewhere?

"I didn't know that you listen to Debussy," Edward said casually.

Was he trying to make conversation?

"Oh yeah...I took the CD out of your car...I hope you don't mind," I somewhat stuttered.

Edward shook his head gently. "No, that's alright. It's nice to know that someone other than my mother and me enjoy this music."

I looked up at Edward, who was wearing a slight smile on his face, making him look more beautiful than he already was.

_That's ridiculous! How can an angelic being like him, look even godlier than he already did? Obviously, the man upstairs must have accidently dropped the entire content of the 'handsome' cup in his mixing bowl when he had created Edward. There is no other explanation for that._

"Laurent always listened to all kinds of classical music when he cooks. He forced me to like Debussy, because he's French," I told Edward, thinking back to the time when Laurent had been teaching me to cook with the sounds of 'Claire de Lune' in the background. If I remembered correctly, we had tried to make pancakes but messed them up because I insisted on making chocolate pancakes with extra chocolate.

You couldn't blame me though – I had only been seven years old at the time. Why he would even attempt to teach a seven-year old how to cook was beyond me. But I was grateful nonetheless.

"Maybe we should hire a cook as well," Edward said thoughtfully.

"No," I protested immediately, "I don't want anyone here to cook for us. I'm perfectly capable of doing that myself."

Edward looked at me with wide eyes for a moment before he shrugged it off and continued drying the dishes.

Only then I realized that I had just implied that I would be cooking for 'us' on a regular basis.

_Us? As in 'we'? As in 'Edward and you'? Like a couple? What did I miss?_

I bit down on my lip and didn't say anything else. Not that there was anything else to say.

What exactly was I supposed to talk about with him?

_You could always talk about that kiss. Maybe he's willing to go for another round..._

The reminder of the 'kiss' made me blush involuntarily. It hadn't really been a kiss but-

_What do you mean 'it hadn't really been a kiss'? Of course, it was! Your lips were on his lips and you possibly exchanged some saliva. That is called a kiss!_

I tried my best to ignore that obnoxious voice in my head, but the way it kept barging into my thoughts just made it impossible.

Edward started to put away the plates and stuff, while I was close to finishing up with the washing.

Then I heard it again.

The musical sound, like velvet, that sounded like an angel's choir. Edward's chuckle.

I wondered if I would burst into tears if he'd ever let out an actual laugh.

I turned to see what the cause of his amusement was.

Much to my surprise, he held up the coffee mug that I had gotten from Jasper earlier.

Seeing the amused expression on his face, I knew that he had definitely found the mistake on it.

"Shouldn't it be ' Vivi la vita'?" he asked, turning to look at me.

I giggled quietly and nodded.

"Where did you get that? It's obviously not a family heirloom," he inquired, curiosity written clearly on his face.

"Jasper gave to me. He said he got at the airport," I responded.

"In Italy?" Edward asked in disbelief.

"No, the cup was made and sold in the US. Apparently, by some people who were too lazy to use the Google Translator."

I shook my head at that.

Seriously, this was almost as if I was selling tea cups with the German flag and 'Yes, we can' written beside it.

"He should get you a new one," Edward said and made a move to toss the flawed mug in the trash.

"No," I shouted and snatched it out of his hand. "I like it, so it stays. You don't have to drink out of it if the error bothers you that much."

Edward looked down on me, seemingly confused but let it go. He probably got to the conclusion that I was weird and there was nothing that he could do about that.

We finished up the dishes pretty quickly and moved out of the kitchen.

I was about to vanish inside the bedroom when I heard Edward call my name softly.

I halted in my movements and turned around.

He stood in front of the door to the guest room, looking at me with an expression that I couldn't quite place.

"Yes?" I asked, not even sure if he had called my name.

Edward shifted from one foot to another. If I didn't know it any better I would say he was nervous.

But there was no reason for him to feel that way.

"I...umm...should we..." he stuttered.

I looked at him questioningly.

Edward opened and closed his mouth once more, before he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"I'm not sure whether or not we should talk about that kiss," he said so fast that I had a hard time hearing the words.

Silence followed.

The tension returned.

And the feeling of nervousness settled over me.

"I don't know," I admitted after a while. "I mean it was an accident, so what is there to talk about?"

I let out a nervous laugh that kind of made me sound like a hyena.

Edward seemed to be getting impatient now. "I know that it was just an accident, but it made me think a little..." he let his voice trail off.

"About what?" I pressed, when he didn't continue.

"Well, we are going to be married soon."

"I'm aware of that, thank you."

"Which means we will have to get along sooner or later."

"I think we made a little progress today."

Edward nodded briefly before he continued.

"We also have to get to know each other better."

"That will happen sooner or later."

"And then there is that other aspect of marriage-"

"Apart from the happily ever after?"

"-the physical aspect."

_And that's how you shut Bella up!_

I gaped at Edward with my mouth hanging wide open. He didn't plan to have sex with me right away...right?

Edward seemed to notice my speechlessness and continued hastily.

"I'm not saying we should...do anything right now," he stumbled over the words, "I was just thinking about it earlier and I..."

Again, he let his voice trail off and he looked at the floor.

It occurred to me then that this was just as uncomfortable for him as it was for me.

Which was rather ridiculous. We were two grown-up people. We should be able to talk about sex.

_Talk about it? You should be standing on a roof top, singing about how you are going to have sex with Edward Cullen..._

Shut up, nobody's having sex with anyone.

_Oh yeah? We'll talk about that again after your honeymoon._

Ever had this weird feeling of anxiety mixed with excitement and fear? A fluttering in the stomach, heart pounding faster and a tingle that went through your whole body.

That's how I felt in that moment only about one hundred times worse.

"I was worried about how we were going to make this work," Edward added quietly.

I had been so caught up with myself and inner voices that I had momentarily forgotten that there was still something like a conversation going on between us.

Should I admit that my thoughts had been wandering in the same direction today?

Maybe not, it's better if I just keep my mouth shut.

There was no need to confess how I had admired his fingers earlier today and how the first adjective that came to my mind when I first saw him was 'fuckable'. He'd think that I'm a horny teenager.

Which I was not. That much was certain. Or was it?

Oh fuck, what am I going to do?

At this moment I really wished I had a normal life and a normal family. I would have normal sexual problems and could just go to my mother to talk to her about it. Or maybe read one of those gossip magazines that she liked so much. At least, I would get some kind of advice from somewhere.

But I wasn't sure that there was anybody or anything that could tell me what to do with this situation.

_How to have sex with the husband that you barely know!_

Sounded like a great title for a book, maybe I should write one about that topic one day.

Maybe I should just call Leah and asked for her advice...but then again I didn't know what exactly I should be asking her.

This was just so fucked up. Why didn't I know anyone who could help me with this?

Someone like a role model, someone that knew exactly what I was going through, someone-

Right in that moment it hit me like two busloads of heavily overweight McDonald's lovers that had just heard that their favourite nutrition provider was handing out hamburgers for free, followed by an army of frustrated house wives on their way to a shoe sale in an outlet store.

Edward's mother.

My mother-in-law-to-be.

Esme Cullen.

She would have to be my mentor in regards of arranged marriages. If I remembered correctly – and I was pretty sure that I did – Edward's parents' marriage was arranged as well.

The two of them managed to put three children in the world and to me they looked like a pretty good team, so there was obviously a secret to success.

But before any mentoring would take place, I would have to apologize for ruining her charity event.

I sighed inwardly at that. I had never been good at apologies. But there was no way around it- I had to make it work in order to make it through this weird relationship between Edward and me.

At least until the wedding. After that, I was so going to be somewhere far far away, writing for my book.

For some reason I felt immense relief at the thought of having Esme.

She would be the Merlin to my Arthur. The Gandalf to my Frodo. The Mr. Miyagi to my Karate Kid.

"Isabella?"

Edward's voice brought me back into reality once more.

"Hmm?"

"I realize that this might be an uncomfortable topic but we need to-"

"The first thing, before any kind of touching or kissing or whatever is going to be started, is that you stop calling me Isabella. I hate that name and I greatly dislike people who insist on using it," I cut him off.

Edward looked a little surprised and to be quite honest- I was surprised as well.

Until now it hadn't mattered that Edward called me Isabella. Sure, it had bothered me but since I didn't really care about him I hadn't thought it was necessary to correct him.

Did that mean that I suddenly cared?

I didn't want to care. I wanted to stay rebellious and make this as difficult as I could for...well; originally I was trying to annoy the piss out of my folks so they would just drop the whole thing and announce that I was too much of a burden to be thrust upon a poor unsuspecting person such as Edward.

Now that this plan had obviously backfired on me, there was no use in being difficult anymore. All it did was making my life complicated and it was also quite tiring to be on my worst behaviour at all times.

Oh no, I'm not giving in, am I?

_Relax; you're just having a moment of realization._

I huffed at my inner voice.

_Come on, stop being so childish. You are already on the right path. You know that it's time for a new plan._

"Isabella," Edward called, sounding like he had been trying to get my attention for some time now.

I looked at Edward with an annoyed expression.

He noticed his mistake. "I'm sorry. I'll try to address you correctly from now on," he apologized.

I nodded.

"Is there any nickname that you prefer? Eddie, maybe?" I asked him. I wasn't even sure why I asked- I'd never heard anyone addressing him with a nickname apart Emmett.

Edward shook his head.

"Alright then. Good night, Edward."

I turned on my heel and slipped into the bedroom.

"Good night, Bella," I heard him reply just before I close the door behind me.

What an exhausting day...

_**A/N:**_** Yes, I know: It's pretty short, considering that it took me a few hundred years to finish this. Well, I actually just typed it yesterday and I ran out of ideas so that is why it's so short.**

**Sorry about that -.-' **

**But I have already started on the next chapter- I only have to figure out what to write in this one so it'll be a bit longer this time.**

**And since I still feel bad for taking so long to update I'm just gonna give you a tiny preview of the next chapter:**

_Bella Pov_

…**.**

"Everything alright?" I heard Edward ask.

I spun around and pointed a finger at him.

"You just cursed," I stated.

Edward stared at me.

"You just cursed," I repeated, more excitedly this time.

His brows furrowed, probably trying to figure out what I was getting at.

"I don't care what you say, I heard it. You said 'shit'," I continued, still pointing my finger at him.

"Is there a point to this?" Edward asked me.

"Of course, there is. You never curse. At least I haven't heard you curse even once," I replied.

"So?"

"Hmm?"

"Is there anything you are trying to tell me?" Edward looked at me again with that calculating expression and I was starting to think that he was trying to find out whether or not I was crazy.

_You're not crazy. Trust me, I know you better than anyone else..._

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN:**_** Yes, I know: It's pretty short, considering that it took me a few hundred years to finish this. Well, I actually just typed it yesterday and I ran out of ideas so that is why it's so short.**

**Sorry about that -.-' **

**But I have already started on the next chapter- I only have to figure out what to write in this one so it'll be a bit longer this time.**

**And since I still feel bad for taking so long to update I'm just gonna give you a tiny preview of the next chapter:**

_Bella Pov_

…

"Everything alright?" I heard Edward ask.

I spun around and pointed a finger at him.

"You just cursed," I stated.

Edward stared at me.

"You just cursed," I repeated, more excitedly this time.

His brows furrowed, probably trying to figure out what I was getting at.

"I don't care what you say, I heard it. You said 'shit'," I continued, still pointing my finger at him.

"Is there a point to this?" Edward asked me.

"Of course, there is. You never curse. At least I haven't heard you curse even once," I replied.

"So?"

"Hmm?"

"Is there anything you are trying to tell me?" Edward looked at me again with that calculating expression and I was starting to think that he was trying to find out whether or not I was crazy.

_You're not crazy. Trust me, I know you better than anyone else..._

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, that's it. Now I feel better for having apologized. Hopefully, Bella will manage to apologize to Esme as well... I'm not even sure how that is going to wok out. Ah well, it probably won't be that bad ;) Sooo... while I'm teaching Bella how to apologize, you guys should leave a review!<strong>

**Lot's of love to all of you and a gigantic thank you to my beta justareaderfan! She's fast, she's great- lik a superhero ;)**


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N:**___**Yay, another chapter! I'm really sorry that it took me so long, but the characters and I needed some time to get to know each other better. Now that we are on first name basis, I will hopefully update more often.**

**Okay, I bet you want to read now so I'm just gonna go and let you read.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>"Bella? It's time for you to get up."<p>

I groaned.

"I'm up, I'm up," I mumbled in response, snuggling deeper into the covers.

"Alright then, hurry up. I'm going to leave soon and Alice is kinda impatient, although I'm sure you know that already."

I heard the sound of the door being closed.

I hated getting up in the morning. Why couldn't I just be some kind of supernatural being that never had to sleep?

I sat in my bed slowly, rubbing my eyes and yawning.

Another day- another opportunity to make me suffer.

After yesterdays events, I was pretty sure that whoever was up there deciding my fate had a very messed up sense of humor or was just really pissed at me.

I got out of bed and trotted over to the bathroom.

After a quick shower, I just threw my wet hair up in a bun and rummaged through my closet to find something comfortable to wear.

Making my way to the kitchen, I paid extra attention to where I was going since I didn't want a repeat of yesterday.

Thankfully, Edward wasn't even in the kitchen so I had enough space to move around and get some breakfast done.

I was kind of in a state between awake and asleep. I whirled around in the kitchen, humming to myself while I wished I was still lying in my bed dreaming.

But then again when I thought back to my dream, I didn't actually want to continue sleeping.

It had been a really weird dream.

I was somewhere in nowhere, where everything was green and wet. If I remembered correctly I had been in some kind of meadow.

I was just sitting there, smiling goofily despite the fact that I had no clue where the fuck I was.

And then some freaky animal jumped in and attacked me.

It had been an oversized dog, that kind of reminded me of Jacob. Probably, because I had always thought of Jacob as an oversized dog.

So monster-dog Jacob attacks me and all of the sudden I'm being picked up and brought away.

I looked up at the person carrying me in his arms and looked straight into the face of Edward.

Edward hadn't even been looking at me, he just stared blankly ahead dashing through the trees at mad speed.

Then we got to a clearing and he just drops me on the ground and takes a few steps back- as if I was poisonous. I remember that I had been highly confused by his actions, when the sun suddenly decided to come out and shine brightly unto Edward.

And Edward just started to sparkle in the sun. Yes, sparkle.

I don't even know where that shit came from, but I knew that the whole glitter-disco-ball thing had me so unsettled that I woke up in the middle of the night.

Something must have been seriously wrong with me to be dreaming of sparkling guys. At least there hadn't been a rainbow and unicorns, 'cause that would have been really fucked up.

"You made breakfast?"

As always, Edward's voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

I twirled around with the pan I my hand.

"Uhh... yeah," I replied, not having a better answer.

I shuffled over to where I had set up the plates on coffee and placed the bacon stripes on them.

"Bon appetite," I said and went to drop the pan in the sink.

I heard how Edward got settled on one of the stools.

Something in the overall atmosphere was different. For once there was no tension in the air, just awkwardness and more awkwardness. I wasn't sure how we were going to overcome that, but I had planned to visit Esme today and hopefully she would have some useful tips.

"Umm... my mother invited us over for lunch tomorrow," Edward suddenly said. "She asked if you wanted to come but she doesn't want you to feel like you-"

I whirled around.

"I'd love too," I interrupted him.

Edward looked a little startled and then gave me a quizzical look.

"Are you sure? Because you really don't have to. Mom said that you are not forced to attend."

"Yes, I am very sure. Tell her that I'm gonna be there."

I realized that I might have seemed a little too enthusiastic, which was why Edward looked so wary but the fact that Esme had invited me was actually lifting my spirits. She didn't hate me after all.

"Alright, I'm gonna tell her that we'll be there tomorrow," Edward responded slowly, giving me a calculating look as he took a sip of his-

"Hey, that's my coffee," I protested as I noticed that he was sipping out of my 'Error-mug'.

"What?" Edward looked at me and then the mug in his hand only to realize that I was right.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry. I just..."

He tried to hand the cup over to me but I just waved him off.

"Never mind. It doesn't really matter."

I turned and wanted to retrieve a cup for myself, when something made me halt in my movements.

"Everything alright?" I heard Edward ask.

I spun around and pointed a finger at him.

"You just cursed," I stated.

Edward stared at me.

"You just cursed," I repeated, more excitedly this time.

His brows furrowed, probably trying to figure out what I was getting at.

"I don't care what you say, I heard it. You said 'shit'," I continued, still pointing my finger at him.

"Is there a point to this?" Edward asked me.

"Of course, there is. You never curse. At least I haven't heard you curse even once," I replied.

"So?"

"Hmm?"

"Is there anything you are trying to tell me?" Edward looked at me again with that calculating expression and I was starting to think that he was trying to find out whether or not I was crazy.

_You're not crazy. Trust me, I know you better than anyone else..._

Thank God that Edward was not a mind reader, he would have put me in medical care by now.

"Not really," I told him with a grin.

The fact that Edward Cullen had just cursed in front of me was enough of a reason for me to break down in joyous tears.

He was not completely hopeless after all.

_Do I sense a new plan in the making?_

Shut up, at least just once!

Edward shook his head and muttered something, before he turned his attention back to his breakfast.

I just leaned against the kitchen counter with my coffee, completely content that this day had started a lot better than the previous.

The only thing I was already souring my mood a little was the fact that I had to deal with the whole wedding dress business.

About fifteen minutes later, we both sat in Edward's car in silence, back to feeling awkward and uncomfortable.

I sighed and looked out of the window, while Edward directed his car through the traffic.

He dropped me off in front of Alice's house, without saying anything apart from goodbye and drove off.

I didn't even get to ring the bell when the front door opened.

Alice skipped out and just pulled me along in her hyperactive haste, not giving me the chance to react in anyway.

"Have fun you two," Jasper called after us and waved.

"Thanks," Alice yelled back, while I was just downright overwhelmed.

Before I even knew it I sat in Alice's car and she started up the engine.

"How much coffee did you drink this morning?" I asked Alice wide-eyed.

She was like a tornado gone wild only that she had just gotten started.

"Only one cup," Alice replied. "Jasper got me this really big one from Italy."

I shook my head in sadness. Why did Jasper do that?

Did he not know that he had just provided eternal doom for the entire world?

"Maybe you should try decaf,"I mumbled.

"How's that supposed to wake me up?" Alice asked me with wide-eyes.

I looked back and her and decided to use that moment to save the world.

"I'm not sure if you need any kind of waking up in the morning. Besides, I once read that caffeine makes you age faster. You don't wanna be all wrinkly by the time you're thirty-five, do you?"

"Oh my gosh," Alice screeched and slammed her foot down on the breaks.

The good thing was that there were no cars behind us- the bad thing: I was in the car.

Thank god that I got my car today.

"I don't have any wrinkles, do I?" Alice asked me frantically, looking in the mirror to search for any flaws in her face.

"No, not yet," I replied dryly.

Alice exhaled in relief.

"Oh thank god. Bella, you just saved my life. From now on I'll only drink tea in the morning. It's supposed to be healthy, right?"

"Yes," I answered with a sigh, "I even have a whole box with Indian tea, I could bring it over if you want."

"Oh yes, that would be perfect. Just take it with you tomorrow to my mom's. She loves tea as well. You're coming tomorrow, right?"

I nodded.

Alice squealed. "Great, it's going to be so much fun. We're having a barbecue as a little private celebration that you and Edward are getting married."

"I thought it was just lunch?" I didn't get their obvious need to celebrate the engagement at any chance given.

"Well, that's what Mom told Edward otherwise he would have been stubborn about it. He doesn't see the sense in celebrating since it's already been a sealed deal for years."

I had to agree with him on that. Why the hell they were all making a hype out of it now, was definitely not understandable. To normal people at least. Or maybe not normal people, since I was not really classified as normal.

"Did it ever occur to you that I might feel the same way? Now I might change my mind about attending."

Alice giggled. "Silly Bella, of course you will go. Because if you don't, I'll force you. I was just being nice when I asked you."

She said it in a really calm and easy-going way but somehow it still scared the shit out of me.

How could such a tiny person be so scary?

I wondered if her parents ever dropped her on her head when she was little...

Sighing, I decided it would be better if we changed the topic.

"Where are we going, by the way?" I asked Alice.

"We're gonna go and buy fabrics. I need some inspiration for your wedding dress," she replied.

"What about my car?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "Chill, your car is going to be parked in front of your apartment when you get home."

"Then why do I even have to come with you?"

"Because it's your dress that I need the fabrics for and I like to have company when I go shopping."

I groaned. This was definitely not my day.

"Oh and I have called Jean to work with you a bit earlier, because I don't want you to be bored when I have to leave you."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna have a quick meeting. I have to persuade Aro Volturi to lend us his mansion for the wedding."

"Aro Volturi? Isn't that-"

"Chicago's Donald Trump? Yep, that's him," Alice interrupted and frowned slightly.

"Why do we need his mansion?"

"Because I want it and you better start praying that I'm gonna get it. All I need is his basement."

I looked at Alice in confusion, waiting for an explanation.

"His basement is the perfect location for the wedding theme," Alice clarified, although it didn't really explain anything to me.

"I thought the theme was 'Under the sea'. Are you planning to fill his basement with water?"

Alice just sighed but didn't reply.

About ten minutes later, Alice dragged me into a huge fabric store, that didn't look all that interesting to me. That didn't stop Alice from skipping inside like a child on a sugar high.

"Alice, darling," a voice called as soon as we stepped foot into this oversized hall.

All I could see were floor to ceiling high shelves, filled with an endless amount of fabric rolls.

Quite unsettling.

I turned my attention back to the small, black-haired man who was currently exchanging air kisses with Alice.

"Haven't seen you around in a while, Caius," Alice noted with a small smile.

"Yes, yes I know. I've been busy at home," he replied. He had a thick British accent, which I usually liked but his was just plain annoying.

"So what can I do for you today?" he asked and it seemed like this was the magic question that Alice had been waiting for.

"I'm making a new dress," Alice announced.

"Well, ain't that a surprise," Caius mocked.

Alice gave him an annoyed look for interrupting her. "Meet my new sister-in-law, Isabella Swan. I need some fabulous fabrics that I can use for her dress."

"I thought Dimitri had just been in town," Caius wondered.

"Yes, I know. But I need something to inspire me and Dimitri didn't have any interesting fabrics for me this time. He said that you bought half of his stack."

Caius sighed. "He is such a snitch. Alright, what do you have in mind?"

"I was thinking about using Chiffon. Not just for the arms but the whole dress-"

Since Caius barely acknowledged my presence, I was free to ignore the following conversation.

I just trailed behind the two of them, while they were talking about things I didn't understand.

Occasionally, they held a fabric sample against my skin, blabbering some nonsense about it complimenting my skin tone or 'making me look like the zombie bride'.

Caius was not particularly a friendly person and I could see that Alice got annoyed with him every now and then. She hid it well though, which I found very impressive, seeing that I would have not been able to do that.

When Alice had finally payed for the fabrics, reminding Caius that she wanted it delivered by the next day, we left the small British man behind and got into the car.

Alice dropped me off at her workshop not without telling me to behave as if I was her kid or something.

Walking in, I was immediately assaulted by Jean.

"Isabella, Isabella," he sang, his hand already snaking around my waist. "I have missed you, my beautiful Isabella."

Zafrina looked at us with a funny expression on her face.

"Jean, are you already done with your sketches?" she asked the blonde beside me.

"As if I'm gonna tell you that."

Zafrina just rolled her eyes and Jean continued to pull me along, upstairs.

"So Bella, how have you been?" Jean asked casually, positioning me next to one of the working stations.

"Umm... Alright, I guess?"

"Hmm... doesn't sound to good," Jean noted, looking me up and down with a deep look of concentration. "Could you please undress for me?"

"What?"

"Don't act so surprised. You have to wear this," he threw a bundle of white fabric at me.

"You're already done with the dress?" I asked in surprise.

Jean chuckled. "No way, I'm not even close. I just pieced together a basic dress that still needs a lot of work. I just need you to be in the dress, so that I know what will work and what won't."

I decided that putting up a fight would make much sense and so I commanded Jean to turn around before I quickly stripped down and then attempted to get into the dress.

But since it was just a big white mess of fabric, I couldn't tell where my head and hands were supposed to go.

Jean chuckled. "Let me help you with that," he offered.

"Hey, didn't I tell you to turn around?"

"Yes and I ignored it. Get used to it."

I scowled at his words, although I couldn't really be annoyed with him.

Jean helped me into the dress, pushing and pulling at the overload of fabric while I was trying to assist in some way.

"So Bella, how are things going with that fiance of yours?" Jean questioned, yanking on the fabric around my waist.

"Umm... I... I don't really know. It's not like we actually talk or anything. I guess things are going a tiny bit better than they have a week ago."

"That was not what I wanted to hear," Jean complained, pulling a grimace. He wasn't actually looking at me but I still knew that this look was reserved for me.

"Well, I'm sorry but-"

"The thing that inspires me the most is when the bride I work with is telling me something about the relationship between her and her future husband. Love is a very inspirational thing."

"I don't love Edward."

Jean sighed. "Could you at least try to give me something here?"

"Like what? The way I get annoyed when he talks the same nonsense as my grandmother does? Or maybe the fact that until yesterday he had been calling me Isabella? There is nothing to tell that you would find inspiring," I snapped.

"Nothing? Not even a tiny kiss or something?"

Jean looked up at me.

The blush that was slowly creeping unto my cheeks was definitely giving me away.

"Oh," Jean squeaked,"There has been a kiss- tell me all about it."

"It wasn't even a kiss- it was an accident, so there is nothing for me to tell you," I muttered, trying to avoid Jean's excited gaze. He looked like a kid on Christmas day.

"How do you kiss by accident?"

"I'm not gonna tell you that."

"So it wasn't an accident?"

"Of course it was. We both fell."

"You fell and then his lips landed on your lips? How does that work?"

"It wasn't like that," I groaned.

"Then how was it?"

"We fell and then we both moved a bit and suddenly we were kissing."

"Doesn't sound like an accident to me. You can't accidently move in the direction of someone else's lips."

"Of course, you can. It was dark."

"What were you two doing?"

"Nothing really."

"Except for falling unto each other in the dark. Are you sure there isn't something you want to tell me?"

I sighed. "Yes, I'm sure. Now leave me alone with that."

"Aw, your blush is so cute," Jean cooed.

I didn't reply anything to that.

"So when are you two planning on having sex?"

"What?" I screeched in response.

"Are you going to wait for the honeymoon, or do you want to practice before?"

"Would you stop that!"

"Do you think that his di-"

"Jean," I screamed and pushed at his shoulders.

My head felt so hot that I was sure it was going to burst.

"So you have thought about his junk already?" he continued with a sly grin.

"No, I haven't," I snapped.

"Really? I have a hard time believing that, I even thought about your man naked. You got yourself a fine piece of ass."

Jean suddenly had a dreamy look on his face. I was sure that it wouldn't take him much to actually start drooling.

I waved my hand in front of his face.

"Would you stop imagining Edward naked? It's weird."

Jean looked back at me and opened his mouth, no doubt planning to say something stupid, but closed his mouth again when his eyes landed on my arm.

"What happened to you?" he asked, tracing the bandage on my right wrist lightly.

After everything that had happened yesterday, I had almost forgotten about that.

"Nothing. Just a minor accident in the kitchen," I mumbled.

Jean bobbed his head and then decided to finally get to work.

While he was working on the dress, he babbled happily about clients he enjoyed working for and others that he'd wanted to throw out the window.

He told me about his girlfriend, Misha, which surprised me a bit.

"You have a girlfriend? I thought you were gay?" I wondered.

Jean chuckled lightly. "I'm bisexual. I appreciate the beauty of both genders."

And just like that he was starting another speech about his past relationships and so on.

When he started to get to the dirty details, I shut him up.

"I don't really wanna hear that," I complained.

"Two guys having sex is weird to most people, I know," Jean sighed.

"It's not that... I just don't like talking about sex in general. I'm fine with suggestive statements and so on but no details please."

Jean looked up at me in surprise.

"Oh my, what an innocent soul we have here. I would have pegged you for the type to be all for the details. Alice is a sucker for these things- she never keeps quiet about her sex life, for which she has gotten in trouble with Jasper a couple of time."

Jean laughed lightly to himself.

"Yeah well... I don't have anything to say in that department so-"

"What?" Jean all but shrieked.

"What what?"

"You're not telling me that a sexy chica like you hasn't been able to get to the dirty deed already?"

A traitorous blush started to colour my cheeks.

"Wow," Jean breathed out. "I think you might just be the first virgin bride I ever get to make a dress for. How in the world did you manage to grow so old without having sex?"

"I'm not old," I protested.

"24 is a rather unusual age to still be in the sweet state of innocence," Jean pointed out.

I sighed.

"I've been engaged all my life, in case you forgot about that."

"So? You guys just met a few weeks ago. There must have been other guys crossing your way."

I looked down at the dress.

"There was just one and we did... fool around a bit, but never actually had sex. It was already weird having a boyfriend in the first place, when you know that you're engaged so I wasn't able to take that step."

Jean made a thoughtful face before he quickly went over to the table and started writing something down.

"Coming to think of it, I don't think that your fiance ever had anything going on with anyone either. You're going to have an interesting honeymoon," he mumbled, while he wrote.

I remembered the somewhat conversation I had with Edward yesterday and shuddered involuntarily.

Was it possible to have stage fright because of sex?

If yes, I had it.

After writing down whatever it was that he wrote, Jean was more hyped up then before and continued his work on my dress.

Only now he was no longer talking about trivial things, he was throwing around words that I didn't understand. All I could gather was that he was talking about my dress.

Eventually, Jean was done working on me and shooed me down the stairs, claiming that he had work to do.

As soon as I landed downstairs, I was pushed and pulled into every direction of the remaining designers, all of them holding fabrics against me skin or wrapping me into it.

"Bella," I heard Alice call into the madness. "Let's get you back home, before they start tearing you apart."

"Well, guys," I announced," as much fun as this has been- and it actually had been no fun at all- you heard the boss, so I'm gonna be leaving now."

I being unwrapped and pushed towards Alice in mere seconds.

A chorus of good-byes accompanied us as we made our way out.

"So how has your day been?" Alice asked me.

I threw her a dark look.

Alice just rolled her eyes at me and got into her car.

I got in as well and she sped of in that maniac way of hers.

"Do we have anything else planned for the day?" I inquired.

"Nope," she replied. "I'm just going to drop you off at home and you are free to do whatever you want."

"Well, that is something I'm looking forward to," I sighed happily.

"Your car is on it's spot behind your apartment building," she added. "Here are the keys."

She pulled the set of keys out of her pocket and handed them over to me.

"Finally. Do you know how weird it was to not have a car?"

"Nope, I cannot relate to that," Alice said lightly.

Of course she couldn't.

Alice dropped me off at home, practically throwing me out of the car before she drove off at high speed.

I immediately went to the back of building, where the cars were parked and spotted my new baby right away.

I even had to admit that I liked the colour Alice had chosen. It was a simply dark blue that seemed to glitter lightly, but not enough to disturb me.

It would have been weird if a car this size would be glittering like a disco ball.

I gazed at my car for a few more moments, before I decided to go in.

After a quick stop at the Starbucks downstairs, I was on my way up to the apartment.

Edward was not at home, much to my delight, so I grabbed a book from my bedroom and got settled on the couch with my coffee and book.

It felt like it had been ages since I last got to enjoy some free time on my own.

While it was utterly relaxing to just sit and read on the most awesome couch in existence, it also got quite boring after a while.

With a quick look at the time, I realized that it was starting to get late, which made me wonder where all the time had gone to.

Not worrying too much about that, I went into the kitchen to make something for dinner.

Today, I didn't feel like putting too much effort into it- so I ended up making pasta.

I started to feel a bit sleepy, since I had gotten up quite early, and didn't feel like waiting for Edward to return.

I still wondered where he was, but dismissed it quickly. He could do whatever he wanted to, I certainly wasn't going to complain about him not being here.

Still I felt the need to leave note in the kitchen that dinner was in the fridge after I finished eating.

I contemplated calling Alice to ask her if she new where Edward was, but I quickly decided against it.

After all, I didn't care. So instead, I showered and hopped into bed. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

The shrill ringing of my phone was what woke me up the next day.

I was kind of a tangled mess, so I had a hard time reaching for my phone with pillows and the sheets all around me.

"What?" I grumbled into the phone, not awake enough to form a polite greeting.

"Are you still sleeping?" I heard Rose's voice.

"Hmm," was all I managed to say.

I heard the phone being taken by someone else.

"Isabella Swan, how can you still be sleeping a this time of the day?" Alice practically screeched into my ear.

"Why, what time is it?"

"It's just after twelve."

I grunted. "That's not late at all. I think, I'm gonna go back to sleep," I yawned and then stretched. I frowned a bit at the cracking sound of my joints, but then relaxed back into the pillows.

Or at least I wanted to.

"You will not go back to sleep!" Alice shrieked. Her voice reached a completely new octave, that probably no human had explored before and I had the pleasure of hearing it. The permanent damage done to my ear would definitely remind me of her for the rest of my life.

I sighed and sat up in my bed.

"And why is that?" I asked her, slightly irritated.

"You and Edward have to be here in about an hour," she informed me.

"What? Why?" Now it was my turn to shriek in outrage.

"The barbecue, remember?" Alice reminded me impatiently.

"Don't people usually do that in the late after noon or something? I'm not in the mood for that kind of shit just yet."

Another screech was the answer.

"Bella, I think you should just get up and get going." Rose had taken the phone from Alice again and spoke in a much gentler and- thank god- quieter voice.

"Fine," I sighed and hung up on then, because my ear drums could only take so much screeching and shrieking.

Slumping back into the pillows, I tried to fall asleep again, but it was not working. Mainly because of Alice's impossible voice range, but also because I wanted to be at that barbecue- even if I prefered to have it at a later time.

I slowly dragged myself out of bed and started to get ready.

After getting dressed, I headed into the kitchen to get something to drink.

I grabbed a bottle of water and then halted in my movements.

It was much too quiet in here.

Was Edward still not back? Where the hell would that guy lurk around all night?

I moved toward the guestroom, listening for any kind of sounds that confirmed Edward's presence.

There was no such thing.

I knocked at the door then, already frowning in confusion.

When I didn't get an answer, I just opened the door and peeked in.

No Edward there. The bed was made, but I couldn't say for sure that he hadn't slept in it. For all I knew, he could have gotten up early in the morning.

I glanced around the room and found it to be a bit chaotic- well, more than I would expect from Edward.

A small pile of clothes was thrown on the chair by the desk and a couple of folders and books were sprawled out on the floor, as if he had been lying there whilst studying all of that.

A book on his nightstand then caught my attention. It was the same book I was currently reading, which surprised me a lot.

Edward didn't seem like the type, who would read a book about a murderer with some kind of personality disorder.

I picked up the book and only then realized that I had stepped into the room. There was no adequate reason for me to waltz in and look at a book that I owned myself.

I set it back down and intended to leave. The picture frame beside the book made me change my mind.

It was a picture of the Cullen siblings. I had to smile at it.

There was a tiny Alice, sitting on a piano in a cute white summer dress with her feet on the keys.

She was grinning down on a smaller version of Edward, who sat on the piano bench, playing the instrument despite his sister's feet being in the way.

The chubby boy that sat on the floor, leaning against the bench, made me grin widely. Emmett had looked cute even with his round features, but he was definitely more of a looker now. He was holding a few music sheets in his hands studying them with a confused expression.

The picture looked like they all hadn't been aware of it being taken, but at the same time it seemed like a scene out of a catalogue. Especially, since all three of them were dressed so formally.

It was still beautiful and it made me wonder just how close Edward really was to his siblings.

So far it hadn't seemed like he cared much for them, but maybe I was just missing something.

The sound of a door being opened pulled me out of my thoughts and I turned at the sound.

Edward just stepped out of the bathroom, wearing nothing more than the towel that hung low on his hips.

I had never imagined what exactly he was hiding beneath his clothing. It hadn't really been my main focus. I now realized that this had been a big mistake.

The well-defined lines that formed a delicious set of abs should have been the only thing claiming my attention the entire time.

Who cares if Edward kind of seemed like a snobbish know-it-all. That man was one of the hottest things to walk this earth.

Not only his abs made bite my lip in order to keep myself from screaming. His biceps were flexing and dancing almost beautifully, although the only thing Edward did was drying his hair with another towel.

That was also the reason why he hadn't noticed me oggling him yet. The towel hung off his head so he could only look at the ground.

I let my eyes travel down his body again and almost wept.

It didn't matter how much experience you had with a man's body. Virgin or not- no woman could deny that the best part of it all was the 'V'.

Leah had always kept referring to it as the Holy Grail, I called it nature at it's best. Not to forget there was the small happy trail of bronze hair that started at his navel and vanished beneath the towel.

It wasn't much hair really, barely enough to notice but that was good enough for me. I never found the thought of hairy men very appealing. At least not to hairy.

Edward still hadn't noticed my presence, since he was walking over to his closet.

I knew I should have gotten out of there as quietly as I could, so that he would never know that I had been spying on him.

_You're a very naughty girl...Let Edward punish you._

I pushed these thoughts away and willed myself to leave.

But that was when Edward turned his back to me.

A beautiful set of ass dimples smiled and waved at me and I was ready to faint. A small whimper escaped my mouth as my mind started to make up scenarious in which I free access to Edward's body.

That of course made Edward spin around. It looked like his towel was about to slip down, but Edward held it in place. Slightly disappointed, I dragged my eyes up to meet his.

I kind of expected him to be glaring at me and throwing me death glares.

Instead I was met with the sight of a completely startled Edward with wet hair that hung into his face.

His expression brought me back to reality. A reality in which I had to flee the scene as fast possible.

"Oh fuck... I'm so sorry," I immediately stuttered. "I wasn't sure if... well, I thought... I didn't know that you were there and...shit... I'm just gonna leave now."

I set the picture of him and his siblings back on it's spot and started to back out of the room, Edward's eyes following my every move. He still seemed to be in shock and I was mortified at being caught snooping around in his room. Not that I did anything bad really, but still...

"Nice picture, by the way," I blurted out, gesturing towards the frame I had just set down before I bolted out of the room.

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><p><strong>AN:**** Sooo... what do you think? I improvised towards the end, the chapter was supposed to have another ending- not that I mind the way things turned out.**

**Special thanks foes to my lovely beta _justareaderfan, _who had been so kind to remind me that there was a story that I had yet to update. So if you want to thank anyone for this chapter, you should thank her.**

**Now, I don't have anything else to say, but you can say plenty of things to me- just leave a review.**

**Thank you all for reading :)**

**xoxo**

**~*Star*~**


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N:**_**Yay, another update that could have been delievered a bit faster! Sorry about that. Christmas, being sick and my other stories kind of got in the way. That and my absolute demotovation to write a chapter for this story.**

**I'm really starting to wonder what the hell I was thinking when I uploaded it without thinkin it through properly. But don't worry, I will not leave this story (at least not yet). I'm determined to finish what I started and I have spent various hours at night trying to get to know my characters better.**

**And since I have done that, I thought it would be nice to share some of my new found knowledge with you, so keep reading and I'll be at the bottom**

**P.S: Special thanks to my beta justareaderfan. You did an excellent job just as always and I'm very lucky to have you :)**

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><p>A - Antagonizing.<p>

W-What have I done in life to deserve this torture?

K- Key element that seems to make up my life: Embarrassment.

W- Why, God? Just why?

A- Anxious to get out of this car.

R- Really, what could I have possibly done in my life to deserve this?

D- Death, just come and take me with you. I'm begging here.

I kept coming up with different ways to spell out the complete and utter awkwardness that I was currently experiencing.

Occasionally, I got stuck and compared my life to normal people's lives.

Me:

- My grandma probably escaped from hell

- Have been engaged before I was even born

- Want to trade that smoking hot of mine fiancé for any other guy

- Can not deal with said fiancé being in the same room as I am

Normal People:

-Have cute grandmas

-Get engaged at an appropriate age

-Happy to have a smoking hot fiancé

-Sleep in the same room as their partner

-DO NOT BARGE INTO THEIR FIANCE'S ROOM WITHOUT ASKING, OGLE THEIR NEARLY NAKED STATE THEN MAKE A WEIRD EXIT JUST BEFORE HAVING TO SIT IN THE SAME CAR WITH THAT PERSON!

Let's not forget that my fiancé and I are not exactly on speaking terms- at least not for any kind of deep conversation- and never even saw the bare legs of the other before. Until today that is. I've managed to cross that line and go far beyond. Now what was making it really bad?

I couldn't get the damn image of half-naked Edward out of my mind. It would be less horrible if he wasn't sitting next to me in the car, not talking to me like he always did.

He was giving me some serious silent treatment and it drove me crazy.

I just wanted him to scream at me and start lecturing me about proper etiquette and how you are not supposed to just walk into other people's rooms.

Did I get any of that? Of course not. I never got what I wanted.

If I were to pray for sunshine, God would just shit on my face and tell me to try again.

It was a very gross visual, but it kind of reflected how I saw my life.

I could pray for freaking world peace and I'd get World War III ringing my door bell.

To put it in simple terms: My life fucking sucked.

There are probably a million people all around the world, who would have my head for that.

I had incredibly rich parents, one of the most delicious men in the world as my fiancé and absolutely no pressure of achieving higher goals than giving birth to a bunch of kids.

Then again, none of these people were sitting in that car with Edward, trying not to die of embarrassment and guilt.

If the fucking universe was not out to get me, then I just had no reasonable explanation for all recent events.

Well maybe, Edward was just the most powerful bad luck charm in history.

All of this crap only started ever since he joined the picture.

I scowled out the window and crossed my arms even tighter over my chest.

At least I had gone from utterly embarrassed to pissed at the universe.

There had to be an improvement somewhere in there.

During the entire drive I didn't dare to look in Edward's direction even once. I was too scared of what I would see.

Besides, I had already seen more than enough of him today.

It should fill the quota for the remainder of the year.

So I continued to scowl out the window, cursing at every God that I could think of and then apologizing while explaining why I was cursing at them in the first place. It always brought me back to the cursing and so it was a never ending cycle of me hating my life.

Eventually, the car came to a stop in the drive way of a beautiful, big and white mansion.

I've always loved houses that had ivy growing along the outer walls, so I instantly fell in love with this place.

I kind of wished that my parents would ever appreciate simple beauty, instead of going overboard with just about anything.

While I was admiring the house, the car door suddenly opened.

I looked up in confusion, only to find Edward standing there. He was deliberately not looking at me.

Fine with me.

I thanked him quietly and got out of the car, following him inside.

It was kind of hard to follow him though, because he was all but running up to the house.

The front door opened before Edward could have burst right through it.

It wouldn't have surprised me if he had just kicked the door open, in order to get away from me faster.

I wouldn't even have stopped him.

But instead of that happening, we had Esme standing in the door way with a bright and happy smile on her beautiful face.

"Finally, the two of you sure took your time," she sighed dramatically.

"Sorry mom...something came up," Edward mumbled and placed a chaste kiss on her cheek before he squeezed himself passed her and vanished.

Esme looked back at me with a slightly dumbfounded expression.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked almost worriedly.

I only shrugged in answer. Sure, I had a pretty good idea as to what could be wrong with him but I wasn't going to share that story with anyone.

"As far as I'm concerned, he's just as weird as always," I noted.

Esme made a face at that, but then smiled gently at me.

"Well, I'm glad to see that you're doing alright at least," she started gushing and led me into the house. "Alice told me that you were worried that I would be mad at you after the incident at the charity event. Let me just reassure you that I'm not mad at you. I wasn't too thrilled, sure, but I don't see any reason to punish you with long speeches or anything like that."

While she was babbling away, I took in the entire interior of the house.

Everything was kept in light colours and didn't seem completely over the top- it just had a comfortable atmosphere and made me feel more at home than my own home did.

"You know, you can just join the others in the backyard if you want to," she continued as we entered the kitchen.

Through the large glass slide doors I saw the rest of the family.

Carlisle was standing at the grill with a ridiculous looking apron on and spoke to Edward and Emmett about something that he must be very passionate about, judging by the way he was neglecting the meat and waved the spatula around.

Emmett had his hand around Edward's shoulder, obviously laughing, while Edward just shook his head.

I was pretty sure though that I detected a slight grin on his face.

Meanwhile, Alice, Rose and Jasper were sitting together on a canopy swing, each of them with a glass of wine in the hand.

Looking back at Edward, who now smacked his brother on the back of his head, I decided that I wouldn't go out and join the others just yet.

"Actually," I started slowly, not exactly knowing how I was going to phrase my thoughts. "I'd like to talk to you?"

I hated it when I said something that was not intended to be a question but it came out as a question anyway.

Esme, who had already been busying herself with something in the kitchen, looked up at me in surprise.

"You do? Is there something wrong?"

I made a vague gesture at that.

"Don't tell me that this has something to do with Edward being so moody."

"He's always moody," I stated with a frown.

Edward had yet to prove the opposite.

Esme looked at me with an interested expression.

"I take it that you and Edward don't get along too well?" she inquired.

"More like, not at all," I muttered.

Instead of starting a long preach about taking on responsibilities and just having to get it over with, Esme giggled.

"Do you want some wine, Bella?" she asked. "I'll make sure that you won't drink too much."

I grimaced at her amused expression but agreed anyway.

Esme poured us both a glass and then went to sit at the kitchen table, indicating for me to take a seat as well.

For a few moments we both sat there in silence, me not knowing what to say and Esme waiting for me to say something.

Eventually, I let out a sigh.

"Esme, how did you manage this whole thing? I mean, you and Carlisle don't seem to hate each other. Hell, you even managed to put three children in this world, so you must be good at this whole arranged marriage thing."

I cast another look at the family outside.

I just couldn't imagine myself with Edward and our three kids. That was just too surreal.

"It wasn't that hard. I fell in love with him," Esme stated simply.

I looked back at her and I was pretty sure that my mouth was hanging open.

Not that I never heard of love or didn't believe that she fell in love with him, I was just surprised that she could.

As far as I was concerned I would never feel anything remotely close to love towards Edward.

Esme smiled at me.

"Don't look at me like that. It is possible, you know," she said.

"But...how did you manage that? You can't tell me that you loved him from the very first moment you ever saw him."

She shook her head.

"That was certainly not the case. But the first moment I ever saw him I did subconsciously make a choice."

I raised my eyebrows in question.

"Carlisle's family is old money. They've stuck to traditions for centuries, even when they came to America so it just made sense for them to find a suitable wife for Carlisle and he didn't object. He was raised like that and didn't see anything wrong with it. He just accepted things the way they were."

This sense of duty was definitely admirable, seeing that I didn't have any of it.

"My parents weren't nearly as wealthy as his are. I had a very comfortable and normal life, although my parents did spent a lot of money on my education. I went to the same private school as Carlisle did.

"I must have caught his mother's eyes at some point, because she suddenly appeared at my parents' door step and asked them to let her son marry me. My parents agreed and even if it may seem a bit cruel at first, I know they only had good intentions. They knew that by marrying into the Cullen family, I would be able to lead a very good life, not ever worrying about anything. They really wanted what was best for me and seeing that we were starting to have financial issues, I felt like I should do them this favour."

"Wait, are you telling me that your parents sold you to the Cullen's?" I asked disbelievingly.

"No, not at all. But by getting engaged to Carlisle, I was already an official member of their family and the Cullen's insisted on taking care of me. So my parents no longer had to pay those horrendous school bills and got to do something for themselves for a change."

I nodded in understanding, although I could not relate to this at all.

How a person could be so utterly selfless was beyond me. Then again, I've been born with a golden spoon in my mouth, so there was no way that I could relate.

"So how did you manage to fall in love with him? And how did you get him to wear that apron?" I asked, gesturing toward her husband, who was now paying more attention to the grill.

Esme chuckled at that.

"He wanted to wear that apron, but I guess it is my fault that his taste changed so dramatically."

Again I raised my eyebrows.

"You see, Carlisle was brought up in a similar manner like you. He always got what he wanted and he didn't have to work for anything, but still his parents expected him to make a reasonable living on his own. Just for the sake of making him look good.

He had been very reserved and uptight, so it was hard for me to deal with him.

I sometimes felt like speaking to an alien."

I let out an agreeing hum, knowing exactly what that felt like.

Esme grinned.

"When Carlisle and I graduated High School, the two of us went off to college and it was then that I really grasped what I had gotten myself into, because we had to live together on our own.

It was a really scary thought to have an apartment with Carlisle and we got into a lot of fights, simply because we never spent much time together before."

She shot me a look.

"After some time, the two of us just didn't interact much with each other. We were just indifferent to one another and did whatever we wanted to. It started to bother me after some months though, because everyone knew that the two of us were engaged and it kind of ruined the college experience.

"I wouldn't get invited to parties, boys didn't talk to me for obvious reasons and people just found me overall intimidating, mainly because of Carlisle's family background.

It was quite frustrating and since I didn't have many people to fall back on, I decided that I needed to get along better with Carlisle. Because at the end of the day, we only had each other since we were so far away from home.

"So I tried to find some common ground between us and let me tell you that was not easy at all. Carlisle was really hard to crack. He hardly revealed anything about himself. But bit by bit, he slowly started opening up to me and we started to get along better. We found things we had in common and that we could do together and just managed to talk like normal people.

Carlisle had always been very curious about the life I used to have before his family took me in and he was very intrigued by it. He always wanted me to take him to the grocery store or go bowling with him. It was a bit like having a toddler around.

But I enjoyed the time we spent together and before I realized it I had fallen in love with him.

I kept it to myself though, because it seemed awkward to share that with him. Despite the fact that we were engaged it wasn't like we really were a couple. We were more something like friends.

Then he graduated and we headed back home, where everyone was going crazy with wedding preparations.

It was kind of strange because being away from it all kind of let us both forget that we were supposed to get married. We didn't exactly work as a couple and we were both a bit stressed because of that.

His family was of course unconcerned by all this and just made sure that everything was going to work like they had planned. The whole time before the wedding, Carlisle and I got to spent nearly no time with each other and when we did there was always a family member nearby.

I really started missing him during that time, because I was so used to having him around.

By the time the wedding came around I was a nervous wreck, because everyone kept pressuring me.

Basically, the whole family told me that I should get pregnant as fast as possible, so the thought of the honey moon just freaked me out.

I didn't get to talk to Carlisle of course and so I was left to deal with my worries myself.

"The wedding came and went and I just went on auto-pilot the entire time. I was glad to have Carlisle by my side again, but being in the spotlight never did anything good for me. I remember that Carlisle was holding my hand almost the entire time and smiling whenever I looked at him. It was the only soothing part about the wedding.

"So when we finally got to depart for our honey moon, I was immensely relieved and scared at the same time. But the nerves only really kicked in when we got to our hotel.

I thought that it was going to be awkward and tense, but Carlisle was having none of that.

He just pulled me into the bedroom-"

"I really don't wanna hear _that,_" I protested, shifting away from Esme.

I had been very engrossed in her tale until that moment.

Esme laughed at me and then got up to get us both a refill.

"Nothing happened that night. Carlisle was so tired that he just fell asleep next to me," she told me. "When I asked him the next day how he could have been so tired, he just told me that he couldn't sleep without me nearby, so he hadn't been sleeping well ever since we got home. And from then on this story turns to an angle that you probably don't want to know about."

I made a grimace at that and prevented myself from looking outside at Carlisle. I didn't need my mind filling with images.

"Well, I don't think that Edward and I will ever be in love. I just don't feel like I could ever love him or any man for that matter," I stated, when Esme re-joined me at the table.

She shrugged.

"It might be true, but you can still try to be friends. It'll make a lot of things easier."

"I can't be friends with him either. We are like polar opposites."

Esme tilted her head to the side in a thoughtful manner.

"That really doesn't mean that you can't be friends. You just have to learn to understand each other."

I scoffed at that. "That's going to be impossible. No offense, but your son is not someone that is easy to understand or easy to get along with."

Again, Esme smiled that gentle smile of hers.

"Yes, I know," she replied. "Alice and Emmett have complained about that a few times as well, when they were kids."

That really didn't surprise me.

"They grew out of it though. Although sometimes I still feel like they haven't entirely clicked yet. Edward has always been more reserved and a bit on the shy side."

I wanted to remark on that but Esme held up a finger to stop me from doing so.

"He's been a very quiet child. So quiet that I worried a lot about him. He wasn't able to relate well to other kids his age and he would sometimes go an entire day without speaking. And growing up with Alice and Emmett probably only made it harder for him to speak his mind. You know those two and they are both very extroverted and energetic."

I nodded at that.

"Between those two it was very hard for him to grow out of his shyness. The only time when I had them all three sitting together in silence was when Edward played the piano.

Alice would always dance to his music and Emmett always occupied himself with something in silence. Every time Edward played they all sat in the library together and it would be perfectly peaceful in this house."

The picture that I found in Edward's room popped up into my mind and I tried to imagine those three as adults, sitting together around the instrument.

"And whenever Alice and Emmett were starting to jump up and down the walls, Edward would just retreat, disappearing from sight until his siblings calmed down. He spent a lot of time with his grandfather then and Mr. Cullen was always happy to see him. He always told me that he was a brilliant child and that he would grow up to be a genius."

Esme looked out the window and sent her son a dreamy look, who seemed to sense that because he suddenly looked up and smiled at her.

My breath caught upon seeing his smiling face. He just looked so beautiful with that wide grin on his face and for a moment I felt like I could see his entire soul.

He caught sight of me though and his smile disappeared quickly and he turned back to his early activity.

I couldn't help but sigh at this. That kind of reaction was the reason why I was fairly certain that Edward and I would never be able to be friends. We weren't even good at being room-mates.

Naturally, Esme caught the exchange and her eyes were sparkling with amusement when she looked back at me.

I half expected her to say something about me wiping her son's smile of his face, but none of that came.

"You know, spending so much time with his grandfather made Edward more of an old soul than he already was. Mr. Cullen is no doubt a good man and very generous but he has a habit of being close-minded and not liking change. I had a hard time freeing Carlisle from some of his father's teachings- they were just too old-fashioned. And now I have Edward with a similar set of mind as his father before, which is slightly frustrating to me.

But I'm still hoping that he will eventually grow out of it."

She gave me a hopeful look, which didn't sit well with me at all.

Surely, she didn't expect me to change her son for the better? As if I was the right person for that job.

"There is one thing that I wanted to ask you though," Esme spoke up again.

I looked back up at her.

"If you are so strictly against getting married to Edward, why don't you just leave? Nobody is forcing you to do this."

* * *

><p><strong><em><span>AN: _Yes, I know that it's very short. I could have typed more but I didn't want to keep you all waiting and I also found this to be an appropriate spot to end the chapter.**

**Of course, now I'm facing the dilema of explaining to you why Bella didn't run yet and I'm really scared of doing that. I was asked this various times and I really had to think hard to come up with a reasonable explanation.**

**This was never really supposed to be part of the story, but I don't like to have gaping logic holes in my stories.**

**Anyway, I will try to update as fast as I can but I can't make any promises. Real life just threw another thing at me and I'm happy to have finsihed this before I have to confront the newest event.**

**So I guess, we see each other again next year- Happy New Years to all of you and thanks for reading :)**

**(Don't forget to leave a review, even if you're just here to complain)**


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